because i've been in TN for such a long time (um, 4 days), i'm headed off again.
to chicago today, for two lovely days with grandma, then to indy saturday for heather m.'s wedding, staying put for new years eve at tammy's house, then driving a rooster from indy back to TN for my dad on new years day. totally jealous right? now i have mellencamp's "peaceful world" stuck in my head.... i think "up from indiana down to tennessee" rather fits this leg of the journey. :P
a fantastic week to all y'all. happy almost-2007! :)
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Monday, December 25, 2006
i said i wanted a computer...
and instead i got a $600 check from the parents. don't get me wrong, my desktop is ok, but for awhile i've really craved (1) the portability of a laptop, and (2) ridiculously good processor/amounts of memory to do my research without periodically freezing the stupid machine from making it do too much at once.
when i started looking up prices on what i wanted with my mom this afternoon, i came up with this HP dv6000t which seems to have pretty good reviews just about everywhere... and sure it says starting at $569.99 on the website, BUT when you give it the best processor and tons of memory, you can jack it up to well more than that. we finally settled on:
HP Pavilion dv6000t customizable Notebook PC
* Genuine Windows XP Professional
* Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0 GHz)
* FREE Upgrade to 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen!!
* Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 950 - Core
* HP Imprint Finish + Microphone
* 2048MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* 80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
* DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
* 802.11b/g WLAN
* Microsoft(R) Works/Money
* System Recovery DVD w/Windows XP Professional
mom is paying, and i will pay her back for all but $600. sooo excited, it's going to be a BEAUTIFUL machine. :)
the end.
p.s. merry christmas!
when i started looking up prices on what i wanted with my mom this afternoon, i came up with this HP dv6000t which seems to have pretty good reviews just about everywhere... and sure it says starting at $569.99 on the website, BUT when you give it the best processor and tons of memory, you can jack it up to well more than that. we finally settled on:
HP Pavilion dv6000t customizable Notebook PC
* Genuine Windows XP Professional
* Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0 GHz)
* FREE Upgrade to 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen!!
* Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 950 - Core
* HP Imprint Finish + Microphone
* 2048MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* 80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
* DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
* 802.11b/g WLAN
* Microsoft(R) Works/Money
* System Recovery DVD w/Windows XP Professional
mom is paying, and i will pay her back for all but $600. sooo excited, it's going to be a BEAUTIFUL machine. :)
the end.
p.s. merry christmas!
Saturday, December 23, 2006
what a loooooooooong day...
... as if driving from pittsburgh, pennsylvania to memphis, tennessee all in one shot isn't already long by itself.
but add in:
(1) coming within 5 feet of starting the day in a major carwreck
(i was in rush hour traffic on I-376 in pittsburgh this morning. when i saw all the cars in front of me completely stopped, i started braking so that i had plenty of room to stop... the car coming up incredibly waaaay too fast behind me apparently decided instead of braking to just zip around me, and he did, merging in front of me again just in time to collide into the car in front of me at about 60mph, and then went flying across 2 lanes of traffic in a ball of smoke, seriously all less than 20 feet from my car. made me EXTRA alert for the start of my day...)
(2) lots of rain and fog for 70% of the day... which after a certain event 3 years ago makes me more tense than normal....
(3) inadvertently taking a 30 minute detour completely the wrong way
(seriously, i know interstates on the eastern half of the country insanely well, but when i finally temporarily got out of the rain in southern kentucky, it was at sunset. the sun was glaring so bright in my windshield straight on that i couldn't see a freakin thing in front of me, so i just followed the dotted lines on either side of my lane and crossed my fingers that the cars in front of me didn't suddenly brake because i couldn't see them... unfortunately following the dotted line led me off of I-65, and onto a kentucky state highway that didn't have any exits or chances to turn around for 20 minutes, hence an unintentional detour... doht. at least kentucky hills are really pretty at sunset?)
at any rate, the usual 12.5 hour trek took 14 hours instead this time and i'm TIRED.
on the plus side there are nice people. i pulled over at a rest stop in eastern ohio early this morning and there were two guys in a trailer in the parking lot handing out coffee, hot cocoa, fruit, cookies, and chips for free (with a tip jar on the counter). they were super friendly and totally made my morning after being moderately distressed about witnessing the accident an hour before.
anywho, i'm here.... TN for 4 days of craziness, and then leg 2 of lara's winter break roadtrip 2006 continues on wednesday. stay tuned for more fun!
but add in:
(1) coming within 5 feet of starting the day in a major carwreck
(i was in rush hour traffic on I-376 in pittsburgh this morning. when i saw all the cars in front of me completely stopped, i started braking so that i had plenty of room to stop... the car coming up incredibly waaaay too fast behind me apparently decided instead of braking to just zip around me, and he did, merging in front of me again just in time to collide into the car in front of me at about 60mph, and then went flying across 2 lanes of traffic in a ball of smoke, seriously all less than 20 feet from my car. made me EXTRA alert for the start of my day...)
(2) lots of rain and fog for 70% of the day... which after a certain event 3 years ago makes me more tense than normal....
(3) inadvertently taking a 30 minute detour completely the wrong way
(seriously, i know interstates on the eastern half of the country insanely well, but when i finally temporarily got out of the rain in southern kentucky, it was at sunset. the sun was glaring so bright in my windshield straight on that i couldn't see a freakin thing in front of me, so i just followed the dotted lines on either side of my lane and crossed my fingers that the cars in front of me didn't suddenly brake because i couldn't see them... unfortunately following the dotted line led me off of I-65, and onto a kentucky state highway that didn't have any exits or chances to turn around for 20 minutes, hence an unintentional detour... doht. at least kentucky hills are really pretty at sunset?)
at any rate, the usual 12.5 hour trek took 14 hours instead this time and i'm TIRED.
on the plus side there are nice people. i pulled over at a rest stop in eastern ohio early this morning and there were two guys in a trailer in the parking lot handing out coffee, hot cocoa, fruit, cookies, and chips for free (with a tip jar on the counter). they were super friendly and totally made my morning after being moderately distressed about witnessing the accident an hour before.
anywho, i'm here.... TN for 4 days of craziness, and then leg 2 of lara's winter break roadtrip 2006 continues on wednesday. stay tuned for more fun!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
wasting the day away...
it's wednesday.
my work for the semester has been done since monday. if it were just up to my schedule, i could have actually left town yesterday.
but, my students have their final tomorrow, so i figured i'd be nice and have extra office hours this week while they study, since so many of them said they'd need it and it would help a lot.
don't get me wrong, i'm happy to help. but here it is, less than 24 hours before the exam, and i've been in my office for the past 3 hours. NOT ONE PERSON has shown up. if i could have predicted that, i could have slept in another hour, i could have gotten a haircut this morning instead of tomorrow on the way out of town, SO MANY other things i could be doing.
but alas, 10-6 today i said i'd be in my office to help, and here i sit... working on my research and playing minesweeper alternately... such a productive day. (sarcasm)
one of two things is going to happen, and both are potentially frustrating
(1) no one could show up all day, and when i just spent 8 hours sitting in a very quiet math building, glued to my office when i could have been getting lots of other last-minute-get-out-of-town things done
(2) since they all decided not to come in the morning, a TON of students will come after lunch time and due to volume, not all of them will get their questions answered.
it's not like i've not given them ample opportunity. monday's office hours were like this too... 3 people came in for 5 minutes each in the course of 4 hours. and i've gotta pack to be gone for a month tonight. it's not like i'm not available. they're just not showing.... oi.
we shall see.....
complete tangent:
in happy news, the fridge at home is nearly empty, so i'm getting takeout for dinner. the gas station down the street from me has a new kitchen in the back that serves southern food. ben, jessica, and i tried it out on saturday afternoon and it was amazingly good. seriously, you don't think of gas station food as that great, but it seems to be this guy wants to run a takeout service, doesn't need a whole building to himself, just a corner with a grill and a fridge, so he rented the corner in the station. now i have somewhere to go to get catfish and cornbread that even delivers to my house and is cheap. yay! when i ordered on saturday the cook asked me "girl, where'd you learn to order soul food?" and when i said i was from memphis he got super excited.... he's originally from arkansas and just enjoys making good eats even while stranded out in jersey. :P good food, good people. makes laras happy. :)
... now if only some students would show to entertain me with questions...
the end.
my work for the semester has been done since monday. if it were just up to my schedule, i could have actually left town yesterday.
but, my students have their final tomorrow, so i figured i'd be nice and have extra office hours this week while they study, since so many of them said they'd need it and it would help a lot.
don't get me wrong, i'm happy to help. but here it is, less than 24 hours before the exam, and i've been in my office for the past 3 hours. NOT ONE PERSON has shown up. if i could have predicted that, i could have slept in another hour, i could have gotten a haircut this morning instead of tomorrow on the way out of town, SO MANY other things i could be doing.
but alas, 10-6 today i said i'd be in my office to help, and here i sit... working on my research and playing minesweeper alternately... such a productive day. (sarcasm)
one of two things is going to happen, and both are potentially frustrating
(1) no one could show up all day, and when i just spent 8 hours sitting in a very quiet math building, glued to my office when i could have been getting lots of other last-minute-get-out-of-town things done
(2) since they all decided not to come in the morning, a TON of students will come after lunch time and due to volume, not all of them will get their questions answered.
it's not like i've not given them ample opportunity. monday's office hours were like this too... 3 people came in for 5 minutes each in the course of 4 hours. and i've gotta pack to be gone for a month tonight. it's not like i'm not available. they're just not showing.... oi.
we shall see.....
complete tangent:
in happy news, the fridge at home is nearly empty, so i'm getting takeout for dinner. the gas station down the street from me has a new kitchen in the back that serves southern food. ben, jessica, and i tried it out on saturday afternoon and it was amazingly good. seriously, you don't think of gas station food as that great, but it seems to be this guy wants to run a takeout service, doesn't need a whole building to himself, just a corner with a grill and a fridge, so he rented the corner in the station. now i have somewhere to go to get catfish and cornbread that even delivers to my house and is cheap. yay! when i ordered on saturday the cook asked me "girl, where'd you learn to order soul food?" and when i said i was from memphis he got super excited.... he's originally from arkansas and just enjoys making good eats even while stranded out in jersey. :P good food, good people. makes laras happy. :)
... now if only some students would show to entertain me with questions...
the end.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
equation
gingerbread margarita + chocolate mint martini + vanilla vodka + scott + dr. seuss + cheesecake + spinning = happy lara
Monday, December 11, 2006
so i would have guessed centrist, but ok....
| You are a Social Conservative (26% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (31% permissive) You are best described as a:
Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test |
Sunday, December 10, 2006
how well can you do?
You Passed the US Citizenship Test |
 Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct! |
crazy alert...
2 things that amused me in the past few days:
(1) friday, i checked my mailbox in the math building and had an envelope mailed without return address from somewhere in california. i expected it to be some sort of math newsletter or math advertisement... or something math related... after all, who sends me mail at my math building address besides math-related stuff? open the envelope and inside there was a postcard telling me where to go to download snood to my cellphone and two bumper stickers that read "forget life... play snood!". i didn't ask for this, it just appeared. how the heck me, and only me, out of the whole math department ended up with that... not a clue. people are funny. apparently i have a snood-adverising stalker.
(2) i've been on a chewing gum kick lately... dentyne ice, trident with the center-filled 2-flavor gum, etc., etc... all the gum packages now say "not a low-calorie food". are there really people out there who try to live solely on chewing gum? if so, that's mildly disturbing. if not, then i find it hilarious that the chewing gum manufacturers have to explicitly tell us that chewing gum does not make a meal.
the end.
(1) friday, i checked my mailbox in the math building and had an envelope mailed without return address from somewhere in california. i expected it to be some sort of math newsletter or math advertisement... or something math related... after all, who sends me mail at my math building address besides math-related stuff? open the envelope and inside there was a postcard telling me where to go to download snood to my cellphone and two bumper stickers that read "forget life... play snood!". i didn't ask for this, it just appeared. how the heck me, and only me, out of the whole math department ended up with that... not a clue. people are funny. apparently i have a snood-adverising stalker.
(2) i've been on a chewing gum kick lately... dentyne ice, trident with the center-filled 2-flavor gum, etc., etc... all the gum packages now say "not a low-calorie food". are there really people out there who try to live solely on chewing gum? if so, that's mildly disturbing. if not, then i find it hilarious that the chewing gum manufacturers have to explicitly tell us that chewing gum does not make a meal.
the end.
Friday, December 08, 2006
you never know...
...what my students will do on the last day of recitation.
last semester one of my sections gave me a standing ovation which was really cool. that might be a one time ever thing. they were a special group of students... i just had a super good rapport with them.
this semester, my first two sections were nice. in my 12-1:20 section though, three of the louder guys came in with pizza for the whole class while i taught. it was amusing.
it's been fun as usual this semester, but i'm super glad that i don't have to wake up before 8am again for quite some time. :)
the end.
last semester one of my sections gave me a standing ovation which was really cool. that might be a one time ever thing. they were a special group of students... i just had a super good rapport with them.
this semester, my first two sections were nice. in my 12-1:20 section though, three of the louder guys came in with pizza for the whole class while i taught. it was amusing.
it's been fun as usual this semester, but i'm super glad that i don't have to wake up before 8am again for quite some time. :)
the end.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
end of semester random life update
* in the past week my car cost me $500 plus 5.5 hours sitting around at the car repair shop... i made use of that by writing out 106 christmas cards. they get mailed saturday. if you're reading this and i actually know/keep-in-touch-with you, you probably have sparkly mail coming soon. :)
* tomorrow is my last day teaching this semester. i'll miss my students, but i'll also enjoy having spring semester off from teaching. keeping on top of material in an "i can explain it in 10 different ways if necessary" way and keeping on top of grading 90 kids' work every single week is a LOT.
* my first monthly lunch meeting with the carnegie institute teaching fellowship people (see here) was earlier this week. i'm looking forward to the next year of forum discussions and other such fun with them. it'll be good for me to have other people who are worried about quality of education to discuss and enact things with.
* research wise, i've managed to sucessfully procrasinate my way through the two weeks since thanksgiving... that amounts to a lot of fun reading and TV watching lately (SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited scrubs is back now, you have NO idea)... and a day in manhattan last weekend oogling at christmas lights (how can you not love the rockefeller tree?)... it also means i really need to do a TON this weekend so that i have something besides excuses to show my advisor before the semester is up.... doht.
* no finals for me anymore, but i'm hanging around for two weeks to get paid extra for grading other courses' finals, and to help my students study for their final... after that i've got the craziest christmas break to date planned:
dec 21-22: drive to memphis
dec 23-26: in memphis
dec 27: drive to chicago
dec 28-29: visiting g-ma
dec 30: drive to indianapolis in time for heather m's wedding that afternoon
dec 31: in indy
jan 1: drive to memphis
jan 2-3: in memphis
jan 4: drive to new orleans
jan 5-8: national joint mathematics meetings in new orleans (see here)
jan 9: drive to memphis
jan 10: in memphis
jan 11-12: drive back to jersey
here's to hoping for safe weather on the driving days -- there's no TIME for me to get a day behind!
* after weeks and weeks of reasonable weather, we're only getting up to a high of 34 tomorrow and a windchill of more like 15... NOT excited, unless it comes with snow.
* scott owes me about 4 margaritas from doing his computer work this semester... that means there's a very fun non-math night in the near future. :)
... and that's my december. tons of fun, right?
* tomorrow is my last day teaching this semester. i'll miss my students, but i'll also enjoy having spring semester off from teaching. keeping on top of material in an "i can explain it in 10 different ways if necessary" way and keeping on top of grading 90 kids' work every single week is a LOT.
* my first monthly lunch meeting with the carnegie institute teaching fellowship people (see here) was earlier this week. i'm looking forward to the next year of forum discussions and other such fun with them. it'll be good for me to have other people who are worried about quality of education to discuss and enact things with.
* research wise, i've managed to sucessfully procrasinate my way through the two weeks since thanksgiving... that amounts to a lot of fun reading and TV watching lately (SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited scrubs is back now, you have NO idea)... and a day in manhattan last weekend oogling at christmas lights (how can you not love the rockefeller tree?)... it also means i really need to do a TON this weekend so that i have something besides excuses to show my advisor before the semester is up.... doht.
* no finals for me anymore, but i'm hanging around for two weeks to get paid extra for grading other courses' finals, and to help my students study for their final... after that i've got the craziest christmas break to date planned:
dec 21-22: drive to memphis
dec 23-26: in memphis
dec 27: drive to chicago
dec 28-29: visiting g-ma
dec 30: drive to indianapolis in time for heather m's wedding that afternoon
dec 31: in indy
jan 1: drive to memphis
jan 2-3: in memphis
jan 4: drive to new orleans
jan 5-8: national joint mathematics meetings in new orleans (see here)
jan 9: drive to memphis
jan 10: in memphis
jan 11-12: drive back to jersey
here's to hoping for safe weather on the driving days -- there's no TIME for me to get a day behind!
* after weeks and weeks of reasonable weather, we're only getting up to a high of 34 tomorrow and a windchill of more like 15... NOT excited, unless it comes with snow.
* scott owes me about 4 margaritas from doing his computer work this semester... that means there's a very fun non-math night in the near future. :)
... and that's my december. tons of fun, right?
new playlist
it's been at least 6 months since i've made a playlist of songs to suit my mood... here's the latest though... it's one of the more eclectic hours of songs i've put together :) enjoy
the adventure (angels and airwaves)
chocolate (snow patrol)
stacked crooked (the new pornographers)
love and memories (o.a.r.)
bitter end (dixie chicks)
mercedes benz (janis joplin)
suddenly i see (kt tunstall)
scream (zoegirl)
something beautiful (newsboys)
mathematics paradise (klein four)
white and nerdy (weird al yankovic)
dear slim (kj-52)
dear slim, part 2 (kj-52)
where is the love? (black eyed peas)
black horse and the cherry tree (kt tunstall)
welcome to the black parade (my chemical romance)
hide and seek (imogen heap)
irreplaceable (beyonce)
the letter (newsboys)
look at me now (kirk franklin)
the end.
the adventure (angels and airwaves)
chocolate (snow patrol)
stacked crooked (the new pornographers)
love and memories (o.a.r.)
bitter end (dixie chicks)
mercedes benz (janis joplin)
suddenly i see (kt tunstall)
scream (zoegirl)
something beautiful (newsboys)
mathematics paradise (klein four)
white and nerdy (weird al yankovic)
dear slim (kj-52)
dear slim, part 2 (kj-52)
where is the love? (black eyed peas)
black horse and the cherry tree (kt tunstall)
welcome to the black parade (my chemical romance)
hide and seek (imogen heap)
irreplaceable (beyonce)
the letter (newsboys)
look at me now (kirk franklin)
the end.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
yep, one of them big southern cities...
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio. | |
| The West | |
| Boston | |
| North Central | |
| Philadelphia | |
| The Northeast | |
| The South | |
| The Inland North | |
| What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes | |
Monday, November 27, 2006
brain dump
random things:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
on the reading list lately:
i'm still in an eastern europe phase
recently finished cafe europa by Slavenka Drakulic... while in europe this past summer i read her book about life during the communist era and this is a series of essays about the 5 years immediately after. it's interesting non-fiction that makes you think. she's also from croatia and this book much more than her previous one was a lot about the specific croatian experience during and after communism. i'm crossing my fingers to visit croatia and/or slovenia next summer and this only gets me more excited about that. (not that communism or its aftermath is cool... but understanding history better definitely is.)
on that note, i just started the paul street boys by ferenc molnar... i read excerpts of it in my hungarian art and culture class during my semester in budapest. it's a classic coming of age book not just in hungary but well-read in a lot of europe, and it all takes place not far from where i went to school when i lived there. quality fun.
eric and i are still teaching ourselves linear algebra (class i took in undergrad, but never really understood the big picture of as well as i wanted so i'm re-teaching myself better for fun at starbucks with eric this semester). we learned all about eigenvalues and eigenvectors today. although i could perfectly well define them before today, i wish someone had given me better intuition about why they're important years before today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
stupid people still abound:
on my myspace page, i recently posted a rant about the stupid messages i get from some people.... how "yo, wanna chat?" doesn't really start an e-conversation and neither does "hey, vote for me on this rate-my-photo website!"... i have to give people credit though, the messages i've gotten since have been at least moderately better. today though, the following made me laugh. not so much the message i got, but the chance to give the response that i did. :P
(background: the headline on my myspace page is the tom lehrer quote "base 8 is just like base 10 really... if you're missing two fingers.")
message from random dude:
what is tenth base ??
im curious lol
(don't get me wrong i'm not stupid, i know what he meant, but it was a stupid question so it deserves the answer it got... my response was one line:)
response from me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_10
i really am an idiodacy snob... at least i'm honest about it? ... and everyone i told this story to today got a big laugh out of my answer, so at least i'm not alone. :P
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
apparently i'm in demand lately, or so my schedule appears to say.
tomorrow i'm at the car shop all day... the darn "service engine light" came on as i was leaving pittsburgh on saturday... i've driven 400 miles since without a problem, but better safe than sorry i guess... in the spirit of multitasking, me, my ipod, and the 120 christmas cards i need to write will be parked in the goodyear lounge area for a couple hours bright and early tomorrow while they check things out.
tomorrow night, free dinner in princeton to thank me for giving a talk in september.
friday: i'm being observed teaching by 6 1st year grad students who are in the required "how to be a good math TA" class this year.
saturday early morning: huge important meeting at church
next monday: required luncheon for all the people like me who got the CASTL fellowship for next year
all this followed by 2 weeks of...
craziness of tutoring, helping my own students study for exams, and other such fun... i volunteered to help grade calc 1 finals 2 days before my students' final for some extra cash... since my students don't have their final til dec 21, i can't go home until then...
then my "break" is something like this 4 days in memphis (1 day driving) 2 days in IL, 2 days in IN, (1 day driving) 2 days in memphis (1 day driving) 4 days in new orleans (1 day driving) 1 day in memphis (2 days driving).... that knocks out the better part of a month... tons of fun, right?
my next year seems to have planned itself out for me as well.
january: halfway taken care of above
february: church retreat one weekend, parents probably coming another
march: possibly attending a wedding reception in NJ one weekend, probably attending my cousin's wedding in texas another
april: giving two talks two different weekends to groups that gave me extra fellowship money this year
plus i've been invited to give at least 2 more seminar talks at other schools and i've just put off signing up for when yet...
dude, my schedule's busy...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
for as much as i stress out about it sometimes (at least after seeing weekly quiz grades), maybe i do actually get through to more of my students than the ones that i'm sure would do fine no matter who was at the front of the room. my students' class average on last week's midterm was a whole 17 points higher than their average on the first midterm. i'm proud of them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
sometimes i make myself laugh...
last wednesday, i totally made my students think they had a quiz about green's theorem the day before thanksgiving. 90% of them showed up, and we did talk math for half an hour. i got them though: i actually gave a quiz with the following 4 questions:
(1) draw a turkey
(2) (try to) parameterize your turkey in spherical coordinates
(3) explain how to compute the line integral around a turkey
(4) explain how to compute the curl of a turkey
with a guaranteed 10/10 grade if they put down something for each question. the reaction when i handed out the quiz was priceless, and reading the results was tons of fun too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
that's the scoop lately.... i think i've actually run out of things to type.
be parties one and all. :P
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
on the reading list lately:
i'm still in an eastern europe phase
recently finished cafe europa by Slavenka Drakulic... while in europe this past summer i read her book about life during the communist era and this is a series of essays about the 5 years immediately after. it's interesting non-fiction that makes you think. she's also from croatia and this book much more than her previous one was a lot about the specific croatian experience during and after communism. i'm crossing my fingers to visit croatia and/or slovenia next summer and this only gets me more excited about that. (not that communism or its aftermath is cool... but understanding history better definitely is.)
on that note, i just started the paul street boys by ferenc molnar... i read excerpts of it in my hungarian art and culture class during my semester in budapest. it's a classic coming of age book not just in hungary but well-read in a lot of europe, and it all takes place not far from where i went to school when i lived there. quality fun.
eric and i are still teaching ourselves linear algebra (class i took in undergrad, but never really understood the big picture of as well as i wanted so i'm re-teaching myself better for fun at starbucks with eric this semester). we learned all about eigenvalues and eigenvectors today. although i could perfectly well define them before today, i wish someone had given me better intuition about why they're important years before today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
stupid people still abound:
on my myspace page, i recently posted a rant about the stupid messages i get from some people.... how "yo, wanna chat?" doesn't really start an e-conversation and neither does "hey, vote for me on this rate-my-photo website!"... i have to give people credit though, the messages i've gotten since have been at least moderately better. today though, the following made me laugh. not so much the message i got, but the chance to give the response that i did. :P
(background: the headline on my myspace page is the tom lehrer quote "base 8 is just like base 10 really... if you're missing two fingers.")
message from random dude:
what is tenth base ??
im curious lol
(don't get me wrong i'm not stupid, i know what he meant, but it was a stupid question so it deserves the answer it got... my response was one line:)
response from me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_10
i really am an idiodacy snob... at least i'm honest about it? ... and everyone i told this story to today got a big laugh out of my answer, so at least i'm not alone. :P
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
apparently i'm in demand lately, or so my schedule appears to say.
tomorrow i'm at the car shop all day... the darn "service engine light" came on as i was leaving pittsburgh on saturday... i've driven 400 miles since without a problem, but better safe than sorry i guess... in the spirit of multitasking, me, my ipod, and the 120 christmas cards i need to write will be parked in the goodyear lounge area for a couple hours bright and early tomorrow while they check things out.
tomorrow night, free dinner in princeton to thank me for giving a talk in september.
friday: i'm being observed teaching by 6 1st year grad students who are in the required "how to be a good math TA" class this year.
saturday early morning: huge important meeting at church
next monday: required luncheon for all the people like me who got the CASTL fellowship for next year
all this followed by 2 weeks of...
craziness of tutoring, helping my own students study for exams, and other such fun... i volunteered to help grade calc 1 finals 2 days before my students' final for some extra cash... since my students don't have their final til dec 21, i can't go home until then...
then my "break" is something like this 4 days in memphis (1 day driving) 2 days in IL, 2 days in IN, (1 day driving) 2 days in memphis (1 day driving) 4 days in new orleans (1 day driving) 1 day in memphis (2 days driving).... that knocks out the better part of a month... tons of fun, right?
my next year seems to have planned itself out for me as well.
january: halfway taken care of above
february: church retreat one weekend, parents probably coming another
march: possibly attending a wedding reception in NJ one weekend, probably attending my cousin's wedding in texas another
april: giving two talks two different weekends to groups that gave me extra fellowship money this year
plus i've been invited to give at least 2 more seminar talks at other schools and i've just put off signing up for when yet...
dude, my schedule's busy...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
for as much as i stress out about it sometimes (at least after seeing weekly quiz grades), maybe i do actually get through to more of my students than the ones that i'm sure would do fine no matter who was at the front of the room. my students' class average on last week's midterm was a whole 17 points higher than their average on the first midterm. i'm proud of them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
sometimes i make myself laugh...
last wednesday, i totally made my students think they had a quiz about green's theorem the day before thanksgiving. 90% of them showed up, and we did talk math for half an hour. i got them though: i actually gave a quiz with the following 4 questions:
(1) draw a turkey
(2) (try to) parameterize your turkey in spherical coordinates
(3) explain how to compute the line integral around a turkey
(4) explain how to compute the curl of a turkey
with a guaranteed 10/10 grade if they put down something for each question. the reaction when i handed out the quiz was priceless, and reading the results was tons of fun too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
that's the scoop lately.... i think i've actually run out of things to type.
be parties one and all. :P
Monday, November 20, 2006
clap and cheer -- this is exciting!
read this article: Graduate School-New Brunswick selected for Carnegie Foundation program
Summary: Rutgers is one of 7 schools worldwide to a get a grant from the carnegie foundation to study "teaching and learning in masters and doctoral programs". They already named 4 actual faculty members to participate and were in search of 4 graduate students to participate as well.
Each graduate department at Rutgers was allowed to nominate one person, and a month ago, the math department nominated me. 10 minutes ago I was phone interviewed by the CASTL people, and at the end of that they informed me that I'm one of the graduate fellows. How cool is that?
This will involve some extra work next semester, but it's also an honor. Quality of teaching and how to motivate students is something I think about a LOT, and the fact that my university chose me to be one of a few people to be given a leadership role and an active voice in pedagogical discussion is super awesome!
so yeah, clap and cheer. this is exciting :)
the end.
Summary: Rutgers is one of 7 schools worldwide to a get a grant from the carnegie foundation to study "teaching and learning in masters and doctoral programs". They already named 4 actual faculty members to participate and were in search of 4 graduate students to participate as well.
Each graduate department at Rutgers was allowed to nominate one person, and a month ago, the math department nominated me. 10 minutes ago I was phone interviewed by the CASTL people, and at the end of that they informed me that I'm one of the graduate fellows. How cool is that?
This will involve some extra work next semester, but it's also an honor. Quality of teaching and how to motivate students is something I think about a LOT, and the fact that my university chose me to be one of a few people to be given a leadership role and an active voice in pedagogical discussion is super awesome!
so yeah, clap and cheer. this is exciting :)
the end.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
on fire!
ben, leigh, and i went bowling tonight for the first time in awhile.
when i first started going with them this summer i averaged around 80 per game and was super excited to break 100. in july, i hit 137, and that was super exciting, but definitely an outlier... although i've been breaking 100 more consistently.
well, lookout tonight. 6 games.
game 1:
that's right -- new all time best for lara with 147!!!
game 2: 129
game 3: 86... crappy
game 4: 93... ugh
then...
game 5:
that's right!!! 158!!!! 2nd time to get a "personal best game ever" in the course of about 2 hours!
game 6: 119
all this averages out to 122 which is super cooler than i would have ever thought possible. the 147 AND 158 totally made my night! :)
bowling is fun.
the end. :P
when i first started going with them this summer i averaged around 80 per game and was super excited to break 100. in july, i hit 137, and that was super exciting, but definitely an outlier... although i've been breaking 100 more consistently.
well, lookout tonight. 6 games.
game 1:
that's right -- new all time best for lara with 147!!!
game 2: 129
game 3: 86... crappy
game 4: 93... ugh
then...
game 5:
that's right!!! 158!!!! 2nd time to get a "personal best game ever" in the course of about 2 hours!
game 6: 119
all this averages out to 122 which is super cooler than i would have ever thought possible. the 147 AND 158 totally made my night! :)
bowling is fun.
the end. :P
Monday, November 13, 2006
define sandwich...
Is a burrito a sandwich? Judge says no
this is great on its own. it made me laugh even more than it comes from the part of the world i was in for the weekend.
massachusetts pictures here
the end.
this is great on its own. it made me laugh even more than it comes from the part of the world i was in for the weekend.
massachusetts pictures here
the end.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
how a broken lock in prague in july woke up my housemates with a singing answering machine in new jersey in november
this post is dedicated to the idea of chaos -- the concept most often illustrated by the fact that a butterfly flapping its wings can make for a tornado weeks later halfway around the world.
except in my story, the "butterfly" is a lock, and the end result is not a tornado. this is a true story of cause and effect, as best as i can put it together. events are presented in the order i was made aware of them. i think it makes for an excellent story -- what do you think?
monday night, midnight:
i come home after being out and about since 9:30am. the house is dark, but both my housemates' cars are parked nearby. assuming that they are asleep, i attempt to open the front door and go to my room as quietly as possible.
problem. i unlock the door, only to discover that it is chained from the inside.
strategy 1: reach my hand inside the crack in the door and try to undo the chain. (un) forunately, the chain does as it is supposed to. my arm is not small enough or flexible enough to unchain the door from the outside
strategy 2: knock on the door. hopefully colleen and leigh haven't been asleep for too long, and one of them will hear and let me in.... wait, again no success.
strategy 3: doorbell. same result as strategy 2.
strategy 4: call home phone. when answering machine picks up, yell into it until someone lets me in.
luckily, leigh came downstairs half asleep and let me in the house so that i didn't have to resort to strategy 5. (wouldn't you like to know...)
tuesday, 5pm
colleen comes into my room to apologize for locking me out the previous night.
she explains
"when i came home at 11pm last night, your door was shut, which usually means you're in your room. i assumed that meant you were home, so i chained the door."
my response:
"dude, i left the house at 9:30am and left my door open. when i came back at midnight my door was open. i wonder how/why it was shut?"
colleen:
"i don't think i was imagining things, but go figure. either way, it wasn't on purpose"
me:
"i don't think you're crazy. i just know i left my door open, and found it open... then again, last night, when i got back, i noticed the pillows on my bed were rearranged too. but who would have been in my room and why?"
tuesday, 7pm
leigh comes into my room, and mentions
"so your alarm went off around 9pm last night and i don't know why, just thought you should know so it doesn't spook you later if it does it again."
tuesday, 9pm
(after some thought)
me:
"leigh, what did you do when the alarm went off last night?"
leigh:
"well it was your little travel alarm. i picked it up and couldn't figure out how to shut it off, so i buried it under the pillows of your bed and shut the door so i could ignore it. i remembered to put it back and open your door again just before i went to bed."
ah ha! that's one mystery solved.
so now, i bet you're wondering what this has to do with prague and july... so far this is a 3 hour story from monday night, but prague is really there..... here goes.
my travel alarm is a piece of crap. i bought it just before my trip to europe in july. during my time in prague, one of my REU students came back to the czech dorm one night, and was unable to open her dorm room. the lock was completly busted and her key was stuck in the door, so she had to sleep elsewhere without any of her stuff for 2 nights. i offered that she could borrow my alarm clock. i hand her the clock, explaining to be nice to it because it's cheap, as she simultanously completely pulls out the button that turns on/off the alarm. so much for that working anymore. this is why leigh could not turn it off, (because there's no button on it, not because she is technologically challenged.) the alarm fell to the floor monday morning while i was getting ready, which apparently jarred it enough to make it go off while leigh was home alone and there you have it.
so. to review:
the cause and effect goes something like this:
* prague, july, my student's dorm room lock busts
* student borrows and prompty breaks my alarm clock
* months later in new jersey in november, i knock same broken alarm clock off the shelf
* that night, having been jarred, the alarm goes off and annoys leigh
* leigh tries to shut off the alarm, but for obvious reasons (i.e. there is no on/off button) fails
* in a fit of rage, leigh throws the alarm under the massive stack of pillows on my bed, and shuts my bedroom door
* colleen comes home and sees the shut door, so she logically assumes i'm home and locks me out
* i arrive home to find myself locked out, and as a last resort end up singing to my sleeping roommates via the answering machine while standing in the front yard wishing to get inside.
life is funny sometimes...
the end.
except in my story, the "butterfly" is a lock, and the end result is not a tornado. this is a true story of cause and effect, as best as i can put it together. events are presented in the order i was made aware of them. i think it makes for an excellent story -- what do you think?
monday night, midnight:
i come home after being out and about since 9:30am. the house is dark, but both my housemates' cars are parked nearby. assuming that they are asleep, i attempt to open the front door and go to my room as quietly as possible.
problem. i unlock the door, only to discover that it is chained from the inside.
strategy 1: reach my hand inside the crack in the door and try to undo the chain. (un) forunately, the chain does as it is supposed to. my arm is not small enough or flexible enough to unchain the door from the outside
strategy 2: knock on the door. hopefully colleen and leigh haven't been asleep for too long, and one of them will hear and let me in.... wait, again no success.
strategy 3: doorbell. same result as strategy 2.
strategy 4: call home phone. when answering machine picks up, yell into it until someone lets me in.
luckily, leigh came downstairs half asleep and let me in the house so that i didn't have to resort to strategy 5. (wouldn't you like to know...)
tuesday, 5pm
colleen comes into my room to apologize for locking me out the previous night.
she explains
"when i came home at 11pm last night, your door was shut, which usually means you're in your room. i assumed that meant you were home, so i chained the door."
my response:
"dude, i left the house at 9:30am and left my door open. when i came back at midnight my door was open. i wonder how/why it was shut?"
colleen:
"i don't think i was imagining things, but go figure. either way, it wasn't on purpose"
me:
"i don't think you're crazy. i just know i left my door open, and found it open... then again, last night, when i got back, i noticed the pillows on my bed were rearranged too. but who would have been in my room and why?"
tuesday, 7pm
leigh comes into my room, and mentions
"so your alarm went off around 9pm last night and i don't know why, just thought you should know so it doesn't spook you later if it does it again."
tuesday, 9pm
(after some thought)
me:
"leigh, what did you do when the alarm went off last night?"
leigh:
"well it was your little travel alarm. i picked it up and couldn't figure out how to shut it off, so i buried it under the pillows of your bed and shut the door so i could ignore it. i remembered to put it back and open your door again just before i went to bed."
ah ha! that's one mystery solved.
so now, i bet you're wondering what this has to do with prague and july... so far this is a 3 hour story from monday night, but prague is really there..... here goes.
my travel alarm is a piece of crap. i bought it just before my trip to europe in july. during my time in prague, one of my REU students came back to the czech dorm one night, and was unable to open her dorm room. the lock was completly busted and her key was stuck in the door, so she had to sleep elsewhere without any of her stuff for 2 nights. i offered that she could borrow my alarm clock. i hand her the clock, explaining to be nice to it because it's cheap, as she simultanously completely pulls out the button that turns on/off the alarm. so much for that working anymore. this is why leigh could not turn it off, (because there's no button on it, not because she is technologically challenged.) the alarm fell to the floor monday morning while i was getting ready, which apparently jarred it enough to make it go off while leigh was home alone and there you have it.
so. to review:
the cause and effect goes something like this:
* prague, july, my student's dorm room lock busts
* student borrows and prompty breaks my alarm clock
* months later in new jersey in november, i knock same broken alarm clock off the shelf
* that night, having been jarred, the alarm goes off and annoys leigh
* leigh tries to shut off the alarm, but for obvious reasons (i.e. there is no on/off button) fails
* in a fit of rage, leigh throws the alarm under the massive stack of pillows on my bed, and shuts my bedroom door
* colleen comes home and sees the shut door, so she logically assumes i'm home and locks me out
* i arrive home to find myself locked out, and as a last resort end up singing to my sleeping roommates via the answering machine while standing in the front yard wishing to get inside.
life is funny sometimes...
the end.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
my weekend
4pm friday-8pm saturday: here
and after that:
me: dude, i just spent the past 36 hours in an arena filled with 10,000 girls... i really need to interact with a not-a-girl
eric: last i checked i'm still a not-a-girl
me: fantastic! will you do math with me?
eric: sure!
followed by an hour long debate on why eric thinks direct sums of vector spaces are semantically stupid
jealous, right?
(don't get me wrong. i had a fantastic weekend in philly. it was a lot of fun. by habit though, i'm much more in my element in a room full of young to middle aged male mathematicians than in a room full of women or young girls. i'm just not used to being around large amounts of estrogen at once. so good weekend, but also refreshing to sit with a friend and talk about math for several hours tonight too. the girl Christian part of me and the mathematician part of me are both currently content. :P)
now, for the first time since wednesday night, it's time for a decent amount of sleep. yay!
the end.
and after that:
me: dude, i just spent the past 36 hours in an arena filled with 10,000 girls... i really need to interact with a not-a-girl
eric: last i checked i'm still a not-a-girl
me: fantastic! will you do math with me?
eric: sure!
followed by an hour long debate on why eric thinks direct sums of vector spaces are semantically stupid
jealous, right?
(don't get me wrong. i had a fantastic weekend in philly. it was a lot of fun. by habit though, i'm much more in my element in a room full of young to middle aged male mathematicians than in a room full of women or young girls. i'm just not used to being around large amounts of estrogen at once. so good weekend, but also refreshing to sit with a friend and talk about math for several hours tonight too. the girl Christian part of me and the mathematician part of me are both currently content. :P)
now, for the first time since wednesday night, it's time for a decent amount of sleep. yay!
the end.
Friday, November 03, 2006
is it too much to ask?
some days i enjoy teaching... and sometimes it drives me nuts.
don't get me wrong. i enjoy students. i try to come in to every class with a good attitude, and be approachable and enthusiastic enough that they're willing to ask me questions when they don't get things.
last friday in recitation, we were discussing double integrals for the first time. i started class with "so do you all understand what double integrals compute?... not *how* to compute them, but *what* they're actually telling you?" one section said "no, can you tell us?"... another section said "yeah, of course, they compute volume. we get it, let's solve problems", but the third section responded as follows.
"so for starters, do you understand what integrals are telling you, or should we start with that?"
(universal nodding throughout the room, and some "yeah, we got it")
"ok, so can someone tell me what double integrals compute?"
(confused looks, students start avoiding eye contact)
"anyone? i don't bite... "
(i give them a few seconds to respond)
"ok, so either you were all lying about question one, or you're really shy about question two, which one should i assume?"
(in unison from several students in the back of the room) "we all lied!"
"ok, thanks, so we'll start with that... if you don't know it, you've gotta ask... that's what recitation is about guys!"
in some contexts my students don't ask a thing. not universally, but a lot of them seem to want to just compute away and get the right numbers without any intuition or motivation for what on earth they're doing, i find this alarming.
on the other hand, they have a computer lab due tomorrow. it's fairly straightfoward instructions. draw a graph, locate a specific point on the graph, draw a normal vector to the graph at that point. there's a help webpage that works out an example. that doesn't mean i don't expect they'll periodically get stuck and ask questions. some of my students work through it, pay attenion, and ask specific questions. i'm more than happy to help them out.
on the other hand, i get students who plug away and type lots of stuff and come ask for help, again, like in class, not trying to connect what they're doing on the computer with what they're doing in the classroom -- not looking for a reason, just trying to blindly mimic things they see and magically get the right answers. i also get students who read the instructions and decide it's impossible to understand so they instantly email me and ask for "how to do it" for the whole lab... with little evidence of spending any time on it... they just want the answers. i get really frustrated with the latter two groups. i really want to help them understand the material, not just see the lab as a chore. plus it's a lot easier for me to answer questions if i can help them keep the big picture in mind. i'm not a magic answer machine. i'm there to help them really understand what's going on.
summary: for the lecture material, many students seem to not want the big picture and so they don't ask as many questions as i wish they would. for the computer labs many students don't seem to connect the computer material to the lecture material and end up stuck and asking tons of broad questions more than they should instead of putting some thought into things before they ask away. either way my frustration is the same: i'd love to motivate students to be excited about the material, or, if not excited, at least trying to actually understand what they're doing.
i don't need them all to be aspiring math junkies who get excited about the same things as i do. that would be ridiculous. i just want my students to care about what they're doing and not be happy to turn in random computations they don't really understand. i want them to ask about what's "really" going on. is that too much to ask?
don't get me wrong, i survived 4 years of HS, 4 years of undergrad, and 3 years of taking lots of classes in grad school (now in my 4th year i'm not doing much besides teaching and my own research). so not presently, but from the previous 11 years, i understand lots and lots of work all too well. i'm guilty of spending less time on some classes in order to do better than others.
i get frustrated from the teaching end of the sorts of questions i get from students-- looking for a quick fix to get the right answers instead of true understanding... but then i think about it. like i just admitted, i'm guilty too of being overloaded and prioritizing my classes. sometimes it can't be helped. there are just too many demands on students in far too short spans of time. the immediate target is getting frustrated with students, but i think in general, i'm irritated with an education system that makes students take so many demanding courses simultanously that they can't really do a good job in any of them. kids get all the way to calculus 3 without knowing how to compute integrals or derivatives, without knowing how to find maximums and minimums, without basic trigonometry skills, without basic algebra skills, or worse yet without basic arithmetic skills. teachers have so much material to cover quickly that focus is on seeing all the big ideas at the price of students not having time to really master and remember all the computations along the way.
the way i see it, education is a gift. the way it's currently packaged, throwing so much at students at once, kills it for a lot of them. some students are able to sucessfully input things quick enough to really understand what's going on and succeed, but for many, what should be exciting material to explore gets turned into a tedious chore of computations and essays that have little to no meaning behind it. they're running the rat race and getting not too much more out of it long term than the numbers that say they know just enough to pass.
if you can't tell, i'm a bit frustrated lately. i get frustrated with the gaps of knowledge my students have from previous courses, but then again i understand where it comes from too. on the whole i don't think that they're lazy. i think they're way too overstretched in academic commitments. i guess the best i can do IS to start each friday fresh and hope i reach the ones who are open to looking for motivation and real understanding... and thank my lucky stars when i'm fortunate to get a whole group of them that clicks and really is in the game for the right reasons (out of the 9 sections i've taught to date i've probably had 1.5 of those...)
thoughts? reactions? am i just crazy, overtired, and getting delusional?
end of rant... fun with students and polar and triple integrals in 8.5 hours.
night y'all.
don't get me wrong. i enjoy students. i try to come in to every class with a good attitude, and be approachable and enthusiastic enough that they're willing to ask me questions when they don't get things.
last friday in recitation, we were discussing double integrals for the first time. i started class with "so do you all understand what double integrals compute?... not *how* to compute them, but *what* they're actually telling you?" one section said "no, can you tell us?"... another section said "yeah, of course, they compute volume. we get it, let's solve problems", but the third section responded as follows.
"so for starters, do you understand what integrals are telling you, or should we start with that?"
(universal nodding throughout the room, and some "yeah, we got it")
"ok, so can someone tell me what double integrals compute?"
(confused looks, students start avoiding eye contact)
"anyone? i don't bite... "
(i give them a few seconds to respond)
"ok, so either you were all lying about question one, or you're really shy about question two, which one should i assume?"
(in unison from several students in the back of the room) "we all lied!"
"ok, thanks, so we'll start with that... if you don't know it, you've gotta ask... that's what recitation is about guys!"
in some contexts my students don't ask a thing. not universally, but a lot of them seem to want to just compute away and get the right numbers without any intuition or motivation for what on earth they're doing, i find this alarming.
on the other hand, they have a computer lab due tomorrow. it's fairly straightfoward instructions. draw a graph, locate a specific point on the graph, draw a normal vector to the graph at that point. there's a help webpage that works out an example. that doesn't mean i don't expect they'll periodically get stuck and ask questions. some of my students work through it, pay attenion, and ask specific questions. i'm more than happy to help them out.
on the other hand, i get students who plug away and type lots of stuff and come ask for help, again, like in class, not trying to connect what they're doing on the computer with what they're doing in the classroom -- not looking for a reason, just trying to blindly mimic things they see and magically get the right answers. i also get students who read the instructions and decide it's impossible to understand so they instantly email me and ask for "how to do it" for the whole lab... with little evidence of spending any time on it... they just want the answers. i get really frustrated with the latter two groups. i really want to help them understand the material, not just see the lab as a chore. plus it's a lot easier for me to answer questions if i can help them keep the big picture in mind. i'm not a magic answer machine. i'm there to help them really understand what's going on.
summary: for the lecture material, many students seem to not want the big picture and so they don't ask as many questions as i wish they would. for the computer labs many students don't seem to connect the computer material to the lecture material and end up stuck and asking tons of broad questions more than they should instead of putting some thought into things before they ask away. either way my frustration is the same: i'd love to motivate students to be excited about the material, or, if not excited, at least trying to actually understand what they're doing.
i don't need them all to be aspiring math junkies who get excited about the same things as i do. that would be ridiculous. i just want my students to care about what they're doing and not be happy to turn in random computations they don't really understand. i want them to ask about what's "really" going on. is that too much to ask?
don't get me wrong, i survived 4 years of HS, 4 years of undergrad, and 3 years of taking lots of classes in grad school (now in my 4th year i'm not doing much besides teaching and my own research). so not presently, but from the previous 11 years, i understand lots and lots of work all too well. i'm guilty of spending less time on some classes in order to do better than others.
i get frustrated from the teaching end of the sorts of questions i get from students-- looking for a quick fix to get the right answers instead of true understanding... but then i think about it. like i just admitted, i'm guilty too of being overloaded and prioritizing my classes. sometimes it can't be helped. there are just too many demands on students in far too short spans of time. the immediate target is getting frustrated with students, but i think in general, i'm irritated with an education system that makes students take so many demanding courses simultanously that they can't really do a good job in any of them. kids get all the way to calculus 3 without knowing how to compute integrals or derivatives, without knowing how to find maximums and minimums, without basic trigonometry skills, without basic algebra skills, or worse yet without basic arithmetic skills. teachers have so much material to cover quickly that focus is on seeing all the big ideas at the price of students not having time to really master and remember all the computations along the way.
the way i see it, education is a gift. the way it's currently packaged, throwing so much at students at once, kills it for a lot of them. some students are able to sucessfully input things quick enough to really understand what's going on and succeed, but for many, what should be exciting material to explore gets turned into a tedious chore of computations and essays that have little to no meaning behind it. they're running the rat race and getting not too much more out of it long term than the numbers that say they know just enough to pass.
if you can't tell, i'm a bit frustrated lately. i get frustrated with the gaps of knowledge my students have from previous courses, but then again i understand where it comes from too. on the whole i don't think that they're lazy. i think they're way too overstretched in academic commitments. i guess the best i can do IS to start each friday fresh and hope i reach the ones who are open to looking for motivation and real understanding... and thank my lucky stars when i'm fortunate to get a whole group of them that clicks and really is in the game for the right reasons (out of the 9 sections i've taught to date i've probably had 1.5 of those...)
thoughts? reactions? am i just crazy, overtired, and getting delusional?
end of rant... fun with students and polar and triple integrals in 8.5 hours.
night y'all.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
you MUST read this
you may be vaguely aware of the current unrest in hungary (most recent articles here):
EU seeks Hungary unrest 'facts'
Hungary divided on uprising anniversary
basically a tape was leaked over a month ago of the socialist prime minister telling quite clearly how the socialist party has been lying to the hungarian people and screwing over the economy, etc. he's vowed to change, but far right parties have been protesting for the past month.
fuel was added to the fire on october 23, the 50 year anniversary of when the hungarians protested control by soviet russia... in october 1956 they succeeded in driving russia out for a bit, had 5 days of freedom, and then, in early november, the russians came back in and pulverized the city with tanks. hundreds of thousands of hungarians fled the country.
the 50th anniversary celebrations were held on monday, and as had been true for years, the leading political camps refused to mark the day together. the opposition continued their protest outside parliament, while the leading parties tried to carry out the festivities that had been planned for over 2 years for the national day. when police tried to clear out protesters for the event, protesters commandeered a soviet-era tank that was on display for the holiday, and led it toward police lines until police disabled it. meanwhile, the protesters have been comparing the current government to that of 50 years ago, and claiming that their protest is in the same spirit of the revolutionists of 1956.
things are a mess.
only time will tell how things fall out with the current unrest and frustration. as one of the articles i posted says, the saddest thing about the state of the current hungarian democracy is that it has divided the country even more than before rather than uniting it.
however, enough time HAS passed to look soberly at the '56 revolution (something both sides of the current disagreement look back to as their heritage). in fact, historians are fairly united in their portrayal of it.
you learn more about it with impressive pictures and videos here at: http://www.hungary1956.com/
and if you're still intrigued by a country that the russians had every reason to believe they'd successfully indoctrinated as good communists, who instead when given the chance nearly uniformly fought the system to the death and escaped, you should definitely read The Bridge at Andau (by James Michener). This is what I just finished reading 2 days ago. Having not read Michener before, I was impressed by how documentary-like the book is. Michener stood at the Hungary-Austria border in November 1956 as 200,000 Hungarians fled their homeland post-revolution and interviewed thousands to compile this book. He tells the story of the revolution from the point of view of young students and laborers, the intellectuals, the Hungarian soliders, a typical small family, the AVO (the secret police), the factory workers, and more (with at least a chapter dedicated to each). A large chunk of the penultimate chapter (entitled "the Russian defeat") analyzes America's (non)-reaction to the revolution, American rationalization for why we stood by while a whole nation was blown to smitherines by Russia for trying to stand up for freedom, and Hungarian reaction to America after our lack of action. For me it was also sobering to read about these things happening in bloody detail in places I've been to many times and have come to know well and love. It's a REALLY well written work and it will make you think, and it will fill you with respect for the thousands of people who had the courage to stand up and fight the way they did. I highly recommend it.
the end.
EU seeks Hungary unrest 'facts'
Hungary divided on uprising anniversary
basically a tape was leaked over a month ago of the socialist prime minister telling quite clearly how the socialist party has been lying to the hungarian people and screwing over the economy, etc. he's vowed to change, but far right parties have been protesting for the past month.
fuel was added to the fire on october 23, the 50 year anniversary of when the hungarians protested control by soviet russia... in october 1956 they succeeded in driving russia out for a bit, had 5 days of freedom, and then, in early november, the russians came back in and pulverized the city with tanks. hundreds of thousands of hungarians fled the country.
the 50th anniversary celebrations were held on monday, and as had been true for years, the leading political camps refused to mark the day together. the opposition continued their protest outside parliament, while the leading parties tried to carry out the festivities that had been planned for over 2 years for the national day. when police tried to clear out protesters for the event, protesters commandeered a soviet-era tank that was on display for the holiday, and led it toward police lines until police disabled it. meanwhile, the protesters have been comparing the current government to that of 50 years ago, and claiming that their protest is in the same spirit of the revolutionists of 1956.
things are a mess.
only time will tell how things fall out with the current unrest and frustration. as one of the articles i posted says, the saddest thing about the state of the current hungarian democracy is that it has divided the country even more than before rather than uniting it.
however, enough time HAS passed to look soberly at the '56 revolution (something both sides of the current disagreement look back to as their heritage). in fact, historians are fairly united in their portrayal of it.
you learn more about it with impressive pictures and videos here at: http://www.hungary1956.com/
and if you're still intrigued by a country that the russians had every reason to believe they'd successfully indoctrinated as good communists, who instead when given the chance nearly uniformly fought the system to the death and escaped, you should definitely read The Bridge at Andau (by James Michener). This is what I just finished reading 2 days ago. Having not read Michener before, I was impressed by how documentary-like the book is. Michener stood at the Hungary-Austria border in November 1956 as 200,000 Hungarians fled their homeland post-revolution and interviewed thousands to compile this book. He tells the story of the revolution from the point of view of young students and laborers, the intellectuals, the Hungarian soliders, a typical small family, the AVO (the secret police), the factory workers, and more (with at least a chapter dedicated to each). A large chunk of the penultimate chapter (entitled "the Russian defeat") analyzes America's (non)-reaction to the revolution, American rationalization for why we stood by while a whole nation was blown to smitherines by Russia for trying to stand up for freedom, and Hungarian reaction to America after our lack of action. For me it was also sobering to read about these things happening in bloody detail in places I've been to many times and have come to know well and love. It's a REALLY well written work and it will make you think, and it will fill you with respect for the thousands of people who had the courage to stand up and fight the way they did. I highly recommend it.
the end.
Monday, October 23, 2006
the addiction continues
as usual... just can't stop buying books... as a result i'm currently in the middle of um... 5 of them.
(1) The Bridge at Andau by James Michener... story of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 (which incidentally started on October 23rd). I don't know what I expected, but I was planning on something good, and 1/3 of the way through it's way better than expected. Good history lesson. Read it.
(2) An Abundance of Katherines by John Green... how on earth did a young adult novel get on the list? the author also wrote in the september/october issue of mental floss, i was intrigued by the cover art, and then drawn in by the plot outlined on the back cover of the book. it's about a mathematical child prodigy whose favorite hobby is writing anagrams and who only dates girls named katherine... he gets dumped by katherine #19 on the day he graduates from HS which prompts a massive road trip with his best friend to "find himself". so far, i'm rather enjoying it.
(3) Linear Algebra Done Right by Sheldon Axler... you knew the "fun" reading couldn't be the whole list, right?... i learned linear algebra as a college sophomore, and again for my written qualifying exam 2 years ago, but intuition about the big picture of what it's all about? not much. i wish i knew it better... so i'm (re)teaching myself. yes, math nerd... but hey, it's my job, right?
(4) Proofs Without Words by Roger Nelsen... amazingly, this whole math book is just a picture on each page that somehow visually proves some theorem or another. my friend Sara gave a seminar on it a week ago, and i borrowed her copy of the book after. at first i thought it would be an easy page-through thing to look through, but lo and behold it takes a lot more thought per page than expected to truly get what's going on. still, very clever...
(5) How To Solve It by George Polya... classic math text written in the 40s by one of the most famous combinatorialists in the last century. i'm a sucker for using bookstore coupons, so when i picked up #2 above on sunday, i also picked up this.
how i can read 5 books at once, i don't know... each fits a different mood/purpose... at least they help me feel productive because my research definitely is not right now. it's a good idea to not say a word to me about it until i bring up that i actually solved something.
for when i feel like not being productive at all, there's still the scrubs season four dvd... i've been waiting for this for a bit. in anticipation, i've had a marathon of seasons 1,2, and 3 in the past week as background noise, but now i have to pay attention to the screen to watch season 4 since it's the first i've seen them since they were originally on TV. in the past 24 hours, 14 episodes down, 13 plus bonus features to go. good thing tuesdays are my "weekend". ;)
summary lately: mad at my research & waiting for a eureka moment, reading lots of good books, and watching lots of scrubs
the end.
(1) The Bridge at Andau by James Michener... story of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 (which incidentally started on October 23rd). I don't know what I expected, but I was planning on something good, and 1/3 of the way through it's way better than expected. Good history lesson. Read it.
(2) An Abundance of Katherines by John Green... how on earth did a young adult novel get on the list? the author also wrote in the september/october issue of mental floss, i was intrigued by the cover art, and then drawn in by the plot outlined on the back cover of the book. it's about a mathematical child prodigy whose favorite hobby is writing anagrams and who only dates girls named katherine... he gets dumped by katherine #19 on the day he graduates from HS which prompts a massive road trip with his best friend to "find himself". so far, i'm rather enjoying it.
(3) Linear Algebra Done Right by Sheldon Axler... you knew the "fun" reading couldn't be the whole list, right?... i learned linear algebra as a college sophomore, and again for my written qualifying exam 2 years ago, but intuition about the big picture of what it's all about? not much. i wish i knew it better... so i'm (re)teaching myself. yes, math nerd... but hey, it's my job, right?
(4) Proofs Without Words by Roger Nelsen... amazingly, this whole math book is just a picture on each page that somehow visually proves some theorem or another. my friend Sara gave a seminar on it a week ago, and i borrowed her copy of the book after. at first i thought it would be an easy page-through thing to look through, but lo and behold it takes a lot more thought per page than expected to truly get what's going on. still, very clever...
(5) How To Solve It by George Polya... classic math text written in the 40s by one of the most famous combinatorialists in the last century. i'm a sucker for using bookstore coupons, so when i picked up #2 above on sunday, i also picked up this.
how i can read 5 books at once, i don't know... each fits a different mood/purpose... at least they help me feel productive because my research definitely is not right now. it's a good idea to not say a word to me about it until i bring up that i actually solved something.
for when i feel like not being productive at all, there's still the scrubs season four dvd... i've been waiting for this for a bit. in anticipation, i've had a marathon of seasons 1,2, and 3 in the past week as background noise, but now i have to pay attention to the screen to watch season 4 since it's the first i've seen them since they were originally on TV. in the past 24 hours, 14 episodes down, 13 plus bonus features to go. good thing tuesdays are my "weekend". ;)
summary lately: mad at my research & waiting for a eureka moment, reading lots of good books, and watching lots of scrubs
the end.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
the difference between my parents
me: hey, will you do me a favor?
mom: what?
me: poke my brother next time you see him?
mom: no! why would i want to poke him? he's my kid! that's not nice! i will NOT poke ryan for fun.
me: hey, will you do me a favor?
dad: what?
me: poke my brother next time you see him?
dad: will that make you happy?
me: yup, the boy needs to be poked even when i'm not there to do it.
dad: ok, sure! i'll poke him as soon as he gets home from work.
me: thanks!
(seriously, he'll actually do it too.)
mom: what?
me: poke my brother next time you see him?
mom: no! why would i want to poke him? he's my kid! that's not nice! i will NOT poke ryan for fun.
me: hey, will you do me a favor?
dad: what?
me: poke my brother next time you see him?
dad: will that make you happy?
me: yup, the boy needs to be poked even when i'm not there to do it.
dad: ok, sure! i'll poke him as soon as he gets home from work.
me: thanks!
(seriously, he'll actually do it too.)
Monday, October 16, 2006
top 5 things a mathematician doesn't want to hear
(or at least that i, as an aspiring mathematician, don't want to hear)
(5) lies with numbers: "about 80%" when you mean 60%, completely wrong computations, etc.... both in conversation and in writing
[not that math people are perfect with arithmetic... we suck at it quite often, but when you're not even in the right ballpark and it doesn't phase you, it's frustrating. math is one of those areas that IS black or white/ true or false/ right or wrong, and making up math along the way and not being phased with the lies you're telling or "oh it's close enough" is irritating. math is about truth and accuracy.]
(4) "how did your research end up yesterday/this afternoon/(insert specific time frame)?"
[reaction: research is an ongoing thing. "how's your research going?" is alright, but limiting it to a time frame, or asking how it "ended up" after a particularly frustrating day is irritating.]
(3) "you sound bummed."
"yeah, i'm irritated with my research today."
"oh no! do you think you're going to drop out of grad school?"
[summary: there are days when research goes well, and days when it doesn't. hearing "oh no, are you going to quit?" every time work gets frustrating is a headache. most likely no, i will not drop out. believe it or not, there come points where even people who work hard and enjoy math run up against a brick wall and work gets rocky. either be willing to listen to me talk about details of the math i'm frustrated with or just let it lie. it'll get better eventually.]
(2) "i was never good at math. you're too smart for me." and/or unwillingness to listen to even a little bit of math.
[i wouldn't offer to talk about what i do if i didn't think i could phrase it in a way you can understand. no matter how complicated of something they're working on, any scientist should be able to give an idea of their work to someone who has even little to no background in the area. i'm not necessarily smarter than you, and you're not necessarily "bad at math" just because you think you are. i'm a firm believer anyone can "get" math if it's explained to them in the right way ("right way" being different for different people). just giving up or tuning me out or telling me i'm too smart for you irritates me because it says you've given up and could care less what i do, or about understanding the things that make me excited. just like what you do (for work or for fun) is most likely a big part of who you are, math and my research are a big part of who i am too.]
(1) "math is a cake major. only people who aren't brave enough for real majors study math."
[the riteaid cashier who said this to me and insisted he was right for 10 whole minutes before he would ring up the stuff i was buying the day before my written qual 2 years ago is on my permanent bad list. see points (2)-(5) for reinforcement.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
on the other hand. i think that this is brilliant. (read the shirt closely) i would love one, but shouldn't spend my money.... alas.
the end.
(5) lies with numbers: "about 80%" when you mean 60%, completely wrong computations, etc.... both in conversation and in writing
[not that math people are perfect with arithmetic... we suck at it quite often, but when you're not even in the right ballpark and it doesn't phase you, it's frustrating. math is one of those areas that IS black or white/ true or false/ right or wrong, and making up math along the way and not being phased with the lies you're telling or "oh it's close enough" is irritating. math is about truth and accuracy.]
(4) "how did your research end up yesterday/this afternoon/(insert specific time frame)?"
[reaction: research is an ongoing thing. "how's your research going?" is alright, but limiting it to a time frame, or asking how it "ended up" after a particularly frustrating day is irritating.]
(3) "you sound bummed."
"yeah, i'm irritated with my research today."
"oh no! do you think you're going to drop out of grad school?"
[summary: there are days when research goes well, and days when it doesn't. hearing "oh no, are you going to quit?" every time work gets frustrating is a headache. most likely no, i will not drop out. believe it or not, there come points where even people who work hard and enjoy math run up against a brick wall and work gets rocky. either be willing to listen to me talk about details of the math i'm frustrated with or just let it lie. it'll get better eventually.]
(2) "i was never good at math. you're too smart for me." and/or unwillingness to listen to even a little bit of math.
[i wouldn't offer to talk about what i do if i didn't think i could phrase it in a way you can understand. no matter how complicated of something they're working on, any scientist should be able to give an idea of their work to someone who has even little to no background in the area. i'm not necessarily smarter than you, and you're not necessarily "bad at math" just because you think you are. i'm a firm believer anyone can "get" math if it's explained to them in the right way ("right way" being different for different people). just giving up or tuning me out or telling me i'm too smart for you irritates me because it says you've given up and could care less what i do, or about understanding the things that make me excited. just like what you do (for work or for fun) is most likely a big part of who you are, math and my research are a big part of who i am too.]
(1) "math is a cake major. only people who aren't brave enough for real majors study math."
[the riteaid cashier who said this to me and insisted he was right for 10 whole minutes before he would ring up the stuff i was buying the day before my written qual 2 years ago is on my permanent bad list. see points (2)-(5) for reinforcement.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
on the other hand. i think that this is brilliant. (read the shirt closely) i would love one, but shouldn't spend my money.... alas.
the end.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
one of *those* days
all excited because i was actually staying put this weekend... no big talks to give, etc., etc.,... just research meeting on monday, seminar on thursday, teach on friday, and plenty of time to get stuff done the rest of the time. that's still true but...
today, i spent 4 hours at church. a couple weeks ago i signed up to help out with fall work day. that means i spent the morning helping do random things that needed to be done around the church property... delightful stuff like helping dig ditches for new drainage pipes, cleaning out the area around the dumpster, emptying out a giant shed in search of church christmas decorations, and refilling said shed, and picking up litter around the church property. free bagels and donuts all morning as payment. :) i actually rather enjoyed that part of the day. i felt productive, and i like the other people i was working with.
then i spent 2-10pm programming in maple at my computer. a giant part of my thesis will be to write a computer program that finds enumeration schemes for multiset permutations. my advisor wrote a program that does it for something else, and my job is to modify it. only after this being the 3rd day of sitting at the computer working on it, all it does is take your input, think for awhile and output "FAIL". that's no good. i actually gave up in tears from being tired and frustrated tonight. hopefully tomorrow's shot at it will go better. i feel incompentant that i haven't managed to properly edit nicely written code in the past MONTH. we'll see. this is what i get for having a job that depends quite a bit on creativity and inspiration,... AND that is right or wrong, not just effort... some days, weeks, months, whatever, all the effort in the world produces nothing but headaches.... in an effort to cheer myself up, i did my students' calc 3 assignment for the week. it cheers me up to do problems where i understand the connections and can actually do it. but seriously, who, besides me, does a dozen lagrange multiplier problems to cheer up when they're sad? surely not too many of you... :P
speaking of headaches, i think my dvd player murdered itself today. i think i'm stopping by circuit city on the way home from church to replace it. it was a free gift from my brother last fall when he got himself a better one so i can afford to replace it.
books make me happy lately. i finished one minute stories and more one minute stories by Örkény earlier in the week and am now in the middle of calculus and pizza. i know it all already so it's a very fast and easy read.... and all the examples they give have something to do with pizza... what could be better?
alas, time for sleep. hopefully programming goes better tomorrow....
night y'all
today, i spent 4 hours at church. a couple weeks ago i signed up to help out with fall work day. that means i spent the morning helping do random things that needed to be done around the church property... delightful stuff like helping dig ditches for new drainage pipes, cleaning out the area around the dumpster, emptying out a giant shed in search of church christmas decorations, and refilling said shed, and picking up litter around the church property. free bagels and donuts all morning as payment. :) i actually rather enjoyed that part of the day. i felt productive, and i like the other people i was working with.
then i spent 2-10pm programming in maple at my computer. a giant part of my thesis will be to write a computer program that finds enumeration schemes for multiset permutations. my advisor wrote a program that does it for something else, and my job is to modify it. only after this being the 3rd day of sitting at the computer working on it, all it does is take your input, think for awhile and output "FAIL". that's no good. i actually gave up in tears from being tired and frustrated tonight. hopefully tomorrow's shot at it will go better. i feel incompentant that i haven't managed to properly edit nicely written code in the past MONTH. we'll see. this is what i get for having a job that depends quite a bit on creativity and inspiration,... AND that is right or wrong, not just effort... some days, weeks, months, whatever, all the effort in the world produces nothing but headaches.... in an effort to cheer myself up, i did my students' calc 3 assignment for the week. it cheers me up to do problems where i understand the connections and can actually do it. but seriously, who, besides me, does a dozen lagrange multiplier problems to cheer up when they're sad? surely not too many of you... :P
speaking of headaches, i think my dvd player murdered itself today. i think i'm stopping by circuit city on the way home from church to replace it. it was a free gift from my brother last fall when he got himself a better one so i can afford to replace it.
books make me happy lately. i finished one minute stories and more one minute stories by Örkény earlier in the week and am now in the middle of calculus and pizza. i know it all already so it's a very fast and easy read.... and all the examples they give have something to do with pizza... what could be better?
alas, time for sleep. hopefully programming goes better tomorrow....
night y'all
Monday, October 09, 2006
örkény rocks
i've been reading hungarian short stories on the planes this weekend.
stolen from more one minute stories by örkény:
experts at the south-transdanubian deep drill company of suttolapocka received quite a surprise yesterday when, having reached a depth of 2200 meters, instead of oil, a sea of tennis shoes shot up from the dig and headed straight for the sky. the quality controllers of the duna shoe factory who rushed to the spot ascertained that the tennis shoes satisfy the most stringent quality requirements. it is hoped that the suttolapocka discovery will provide not only for the domestic market, but will also help us fulfill our contractual agreenment with the afghanistani ministry of foreign trade.
heh.
the end.
stolen from more one minute stories by örkény:
experts at the south-transdanubian deep drill company of suttolapocka received quite a surprise yesterday when, having reached a depth of 2200 meters, instead of oil, a sea of tennis shoes shot up from the dig and headed straight for the sky. the quality controllers of the duna shoe factory who rushed to the spot ascertained that the tennis shoes satisfy the most stringent quality requirements. it is hoped that the suttolapocka discovery will provide not only for the domestic market, but will also help us fulfill our contractual agreenment with the afghanistani ministry of foreign trade.
heh.
the end.
24 hours ago...
... i was splashing in the dark in the pacific ocean and eating fish and chips with arlene!
but alas, now i'm back in jersey.
pictures posted eventually, but in the meantime check out my dad
but alas, now i'm back in jersey.
pictures posted eventually, but in the meantime check out my dad
Friday, October 06, 2006
i just *dare* you...
... to be me this week.
It's 12:30am. That can't be good. I've already given 2 lectures this week, after driving 200 miles away and back last weekend. I've graded nearly 100 calculus quizzes. I've done a bit of reading.
Today, I had students in office hours for nearly 2 hours straight, and answered a continual stream of emails all day about the computer assignment they have to turn in tomorrow.... then I got to be the tech person to set up for and clean up after seminar today. (woohoo)
Otherwise, I spent every bit of time I could get today working on this:
it's my poster for the conference I'm going to in CA tomorrow.... think science fair for math people... Now, at midnight I've finally stopped working on it. I wish I had something more picture-oriented to display. My research is cool but the best I can do is colored numbers... this is about as good as it's gonna get this go around.
Oh yeah, that's right... after running around like mad all day, make that all WEEK, i'm flying to california in ummm... 17 hours. i have yet to pack. i might need to start laundry now at 1am. that's bad.
And it's not like I'm sleeping before then either. I teach from 8:30-1:30 tomorrow (on just how much sleep?!) and then need to be on my way out the door to the airport by 2:45. I land on the west coast around 10pm local time... that's about 24 hours from now.... and I don't really sleep on planes.
I return sunday around midnight, then to get an idea of next week, read the green box on this page.
How on earth did I ever get so busy?!?!?!
Done ranting. Happy weekend all. Maybe my schedule is a bit insane, but I'll be in southern cali and you (probably) won't. ;)
the end.
It's 12:30am. That can't be good. I've already given 2 lectures this week, after driving 200 miles away and back last weekend. I've graded nearly 100 calculus quizzes. I've done a bit of reading.
Today, I had students in office hours for nearly 2 hours straight, and answered a continual stream of emails all day about the computer assignment they have to turn in tomorrow.... then I got to be the tech person to set up for and clean up after seminar today. (woohoo)
Otherwise, I spent every bit of time I could get today working on this:
it's my poster for the conference I'm going to in CA tomorrow.... think science fair for math people... Now, at midnight I've finally stopped working on it. I wish I had something more picture-oriented to display. My research is cool but the best I can do is colored numbers... this is about as good as it's gonna get this go around.
Oh yeah, that's right... after running around like mad all day, make that all WEEK, i'm flying to california in ummm... 17 hours. i have yet to pack. i might need to start laundry now at 1am. that's bad.
And it's not like I'm sleeping before then either. I teach from 8:30-1:30 tomorrow (on just how much sleep?!) and then need to be on my way out the door to the airport by 2:45. I land on the west coast around 10pm local time... that's about 24 hours from now.... and I don't really sleep on planes.
I return sunday around midnight, then to get an idea of next week, read the green box on this page.
How on earth did I ever get so busy?!?!?!
Done ranting. Happy weekend all. Maybe my schedule is a bit insane, but I'll be in southern cali and you (probably) won't. ;)
the end.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
a very very very long day
on the upside....
* i gave my talk in princeton. it went well, and not only did eric and phil come down from rutgers to hear it, ilia (one of my REU students this summer who is an undergrad at princeton) attended too... how cool is that?
* i have a new favorite hiding place to study. it didn't exist a week ago and now it's the perfect place for me to get work done and avoid others. i like it.
* i found 3 new (much needed) pairs of shoes...
on the downside...
roy, my stepgrandpa for the past 9 years, died tonight. kind of how my grandma died last summer a month after her little sister died, roy died tonight, just a month after his little brother died. he'd been in the nursing home since the week when grandma died last summer, and had been up and down in health, but rather incoherent since his brother died this summer. he'd been stable though until last night when he started being unresponsive. around 4/5pm tonight he was transported to the hospital where he was a bit agitated but still unresponsive. my aunt priscilla drove up and sang to him and read him Bible stories for 2 hours until she was losing her voice, and knowing more family was coming later in the evening, and not knowing how long things would go/if/when he'd improve, she headed back home... 10 minutes after she left, she got a call that he'd died and she went right back and stayed with the rest of the family until his body was transported away. visitation thursday, funeral friday, neither of which i can attend since i have to teach friday morning and fly to california friday afternoon. i'm happy roy's at peace now body and mind. it's not quite the same as losing a grandparent, but similar. i guess i can count it now as having 1 out of 5 left (g-pa p., g-pa and g-ma s., and now roy are all gone, just g-ma p. is left) i'm sad, but also thankful that i did have him around the past 9 years... it's just strange that he's not there anymore, even if i'm far away...
life. oi...
the end.
* i gave my talk in princeton. it went well, and not only did eric and phil come down from rutgers to hear it, ilia (one of my REU students this summer who is an undergrad at princeton) attended too... how cool is that?
* i have a new favorite hiding place to study. it didn't exist a week ago and now it's the perfect place for me to get work done and avoid others. i like it.
* i found 3 new (much needed) pairs of shoes...
on the downside...
roy, my stepgrandpa for the past 9 years, died tonight. kind of how my grandma died last summer a month after her little sister died, roy died tonight, just a month after his little brother died. he'd been in the nursing home since the week when grandma died last summer, and had been up and down in health, but rather incoherent since his brother died this summer. he'd been stable though until last night when he started being unresponsive. around 4/5pm tonight he was transported to the hospital where he was a bit agitated but still unresponsive. my aunt priscilla drove up and sang to him and read him Bible stories for 2 hours until she was losing her voice, and knowing more family was coming later in the evening, and not knowing how long things would go/if/when he'd improve, she headed back home... 10 minutes after she left, she got a call that he'd died and she went right back and stayed with the rest of the family until his body was transported away. visitation thursday, funeral friday, neither of which i can attend since i have to teach friday morning and fly to california friday afternoon. i'm happy roy's at peace now body and mind. it's not quite the same as losing a grandparent, but similar. i guess i can count it now as having 1 out of 5 left (g-pa p., g-pa and g-ma s., and now roy are all gone, just g-ma p. is left) i'm sad, but also thankful that i did have him around the past 9 years... it's just strange that he's not there anymore, even if i'm far away...
life. oi...
the end.
Monday, October 02, 2006
it's gonna be a *crazy* week...
luckily, *since* it's gonna be a crazy week, and since i didn't get to work on any of my own stuff friday or saturday on account of travelling to and attending a conference, i did get more than expected done yesterday, i.e.
(1) planned lecture for calculus class today,
(2) planned lecture for seminar at princeton tomorrow,
(3) started working on some of my students' homework questions that are due this week so that i can answer well in recitation friday,
(4) answered lots of maple lab emails...
that still leaves:
(1) giving the calculus lecture today (dr. z. is not coming in because of yom kippur, so scott and i are each subbing for our own sections)
(2) give seminar at princeton tomorrow
(3) finish doing my students' weekly homework so that i'm prepared to teach on friday
(4) probably answer lots more maple lab emails throughout the week (their first maple lab is due on friday)
(5) grade 90 calculus quizzes
(6) prepare a 4' x 4' poster on what i talked about at the iceland conference in june
(7) pack, etc. to fly to CA for combinatorics conference on friday
if you're not sitting in on one of my talks this week or going to the Cali conference, good luck finding me!
the end.
(p.s. somehow, busy doesn't stop the book buying addiction. i worked for awhile at starbucks yesterday and it's right next door to borders, so "on the way" to the car, i stopped for 10 minutes to look around and left with Cafe Europa: Life After Communism (by Slavenka Drakulic) and Proofs from The Book (by Aigner and Ziegler)... who knows when I'll get around to them, but this is my 2nd Drakulic book (I bought one in Prague this summer and read it before I came back to the States... that was about life in communist eastern europe, this one is about the aftermath), and it fits right in to my current eastern european books fascination... proofs from the book i've been eyeballing for years, and to see a bright shiny new copy right in front of me at borders (when usually popular bookstores have "pop math" books for the masses, and not real hardcore springer publications), how could i not? books are my friends when i'm too busy to sit still and talk much... just knowing they're sitting there just full of good stuff patiently waiting to be read makes me happy.)
later dudes.
(1) planned lecture for calculus class today,
(2) planned lecture for seminar at princeton tomorrow,
(3) started working on some of my students' homework questions that are due this week so that i can answer well in recitation friday,
(4) answered lots of maple lab emails...
that still leaves:
(1) giving the calculus lecture today (dr. z. is not coming in because of yom kippur, so scott and i are each subbing for our own sections)
(2) give seminar at princeton tomorrow
(3) finish doing my students' weekly homework so that i'm prepared to teach on friday
(4) probably answer lots more maple lab emails throughout the week (their first maple lab is due on friday)
(5) grade 90 calculus quizzes
(6) prepare a 4' x 4' poster on what i talked about at the iceland conference in june
(7) pack, etc. to fly to CA for combinatorics conference on friday
if you're not sitting in on one of my talks this week or going to the Cali conference, good luck finding me!
the end.
(p.s. somehow, busy doesn't stop the book buying addiction. i worked for awhile at starbucks yesterday and it's right next door to borders, so "on the way" to the car, i stopped for 10 minutes to look around and left with Cafe Europa: Life After Communism (by Slavenka Drakulic) and Proofs from The Book (by Aigner and Ziegler)... who knows when I'll get around to them, but this is my 2nd Drakulic book (I bought one in Prague this summer and read it before I came back to the States... that was about life in communist eastern europe, this one is about the aftermath), and it fits right in to my current eastern european books fascination... proofs from the book i've been eyeballing for years, and to see a bright shiny new copy right in front of me at borders (when usually popular bookstores have "pop math" books for the masses, and not real hardcore springer publications), how could i not? books are my friends when i'm too busy to sit still and talk much... just knowing they're sitting there just full of good stuff patiently waiting to be read makes me happy.)
later dudes.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
rock on!
ben and me bowled 5 games tonight. this isn't my all time best score, and frame 3 should be completely ignored, but CHECK OUT FRAME TEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yay lara!!! ;)
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
still reading....
it's funny how finishing one book can alter what you want to read next. as planned, i just plowed through The History of Eastern Europe for Beginners in 2 days (started it last night around midnight, finished it 15 minutes ago).
criticisms online said that it contains historical inaccuracies such as "tito was a serb", when indeed his dad was slovene and his mom was croat, and several complained that it had a very pro-socialist slant.
i don't get how this:
or this:
is pro-socialist though.
i thought the book gave an idea of how people originally would have thought it was a good idea/why socialism got such a strong hold in eastern europe to start, but then was honest about pros and cons (and the fact that there were much more cons). for me, it was entertaining to read. you take it as tongue in cheek, but you still leave with a real sense (at least in general) of the landmark events/situations that have put eastern europe into it's current setup. it's worth a glance at least.
about amazon reviewers, i loved horby's passage (yes, still harping on the polysyllabic spree) where he says:
"In an online interview, Haddon quotes one of his Amazon reviewers, someone who hated his novel, saying, "the most worrying thing about the book is that Christopher says he dislikes fiction, and yet the whole book is fiction." And that, says the author, "puts at least part of the problem in a nutshell." It doesn't, I don't think, because the Amazon reviewer is too dim to put anything in a nutshell. I suspect, in fact, that the Amazon reviewer couldn't put anything in the boot of his car, let alone a nutshell. (Presumably you couldn't write a book about someone who couldn't read, either, or someone who didn't like paper, beacuse the whole book is paper. Oh, man, I hate Amazon reviewers. Even the nice ones, who say nice things. They're bastards too.)"
That passage mostly made me laugh. And I copied it, not just for a laugh here, but also because really.... Although I glace at the average Amazon rating, some people's comments drive me nuts. By and large on non-book products, the people who bother to write bought the product, waited for it to break (all things do eventually) and then wrote an essay to complain. For books, I get annoyed with people who can't spell. I take slightly into account the average rating (out of 5 stars), but actual comments little into account. there are a lot of strange people out there, and i don't trust their opinions until they've set a good precedent for why i should...
anyhow, this past weekend, after buying 2 more books on friday, and before finishing hornby and starting in on the eastern europe history comic book, i arranged my "to be read" stack of a dozen or so books into the order i planned to read them. next up after the comic book was supposed to be the bridge an andau, and that's still near the top, but the comic book motivated me to move something else to the top first:
next in line is one minute stories by istván örkény. it's classic hungarian literature but the only publisher is corvina in budapest. i read it 4 years ago, but it got back into my reading stack because a month ago in budapest, i purchased örkény's more one minute stories, same publisher, more recent collection of his stuff. they're both short (often less than one page) stories about the absurdities of life in socialist eastern europe (örkény died in 1979).
quote from the back:
"supremely deft, witty and poignant, örkény's stories sparkle with the absurd and the inexplicable which he discovers gliding beneath the surface of the rituals, gossip, cafés and intrigues of contemporary budapest. a newspaper misprint, an accident in the street, a funeral, even the instructions pinned to the wall beside a fire extinguisher become the occasion for a meditation on existence. örkény is a master of irony and the arts of survival practiced close to the stuff of ordinary experience."
fact: eastern european culture seems to have a unique dry sense of humor cultivated by the absurdly crazy past history they've survived.
hypothesis: after reading a comic book about said crazy past history, apparently i'm trying to better cultivate my own personal appreciation for said dry humor.
we shall see.
(glances back through what i've just written.... dude, i type up a lot of rubbish, who out there still reads this blog? ;P)
criticisms online said that it contains historical inaccuracies such as "tito was a serb", when indeed his dad was slovene and his mom was croat, and several complained that it had a very pro-socialist slant.
i don't get how this:
or this:
is pro-socialist though.
i thought the book gave an idea of how people originally would have thought it was a good idea/why socialism got such a strong hold in eastern europe to start, but then was honest about pros and cons (and the fact that there were much more cons). for me, it was entertaining to read. you take it as tongue in cheek, but you still leave with a real sense (at least in general) of the landmark events/situations that have put eastern europe into it's current setup. it's worth a glance at least.
about amazon reviewers, i loved horby's passage (yes, still harping on the polysyllabic spree) where he says:
"In an online interview, Haddon quotes one of his Amazon reviewers, someone who hated his novel, saying, "the most worrying thing about the book is that Christopher says he dislikes fiction, and yet the whole book is fiction." And that, says the author, "puts at least part of the problem in a nutshell." It doesn't, I don't think, because the Amazon reviewer is too dim to put anything in a nutshell. I suspect, in fact, that the Amazon reviewer couldn't put anything in the boot of his car, let alone a nutshell. (Presumably you couldn't write a book about someone who couldn't read, either, or someone who didn't like paper, beacuse the whole book is paper. Oh, man, I hate Amazon reviewers. Even the nice ones, who say nice things. They're bastards too.)"
That passage mostly made me laugh. And I copied it, not just for a laugh here, but also because really.... Although I glace at the average Amazon rating, some people's comments drive me nuts. By and large on non-book products, the people who bother to write bought the product, waited for it to break (all things do eventually) and then wrote an essay to complain. For books, I get annoyed with people who can't spell. I take slightly into account the average rating (out of 5 stars), but actual comments little into account. there are a lot of strange people out there, and i don't trust their opinions until they've set a good precedent for why i should...
anyhow, this past weekend, after buying 2 more books on friday, and before finishing hornby and starting in on the eastern europe history comic book, i arranged my "to be read" stack of a dozen or so books into the order i planned to read them. next up after the comic book was supposed to be the bridge an andau, and that's still near the top, but the comic book motivated me to move something else to the top first:
next in line is one minute stories by istván örkény. it's classic hungarian literature but the only publisher is corvina in budapest. i read it 4 years ago, but it got back into my reading stack because a month ago in budapest, i purchased örkény's more one minute stories, same publisher, more recent collection of his stuff. they're both short (often less than one page) stories about the absurdities of life in socialist eastern europe (örkény died in 1979).
quote from the back:
"supremely deft, witty and poignant, örkény's stories sparkle with the absurd and the inexplicable which he discovers gliding beneath the surface of the rituals, gossip, cafés and intrigues of contemporary budapest. a newspaper misprint, an accident in the street, a funeral, even the instructions pinned to the wall beside a fire extinguisher become the occasion for a meditation on existence. örkény is a master of irony and the arts of survival practiced close to the stuff of ordinary experience."
fact: eastern european culture seems to have a unique dry sense of humor cultivated by the absurdly crazy past history they've survived.
hypothesis: after reading a comic book about said crazy past history, apparently i'm trying to better cultivate my own personal appreciation for said dry humor.
we shall see.
(glances back through what i've just written.... dude, i type up a lot of rubbish, who out there still reads this blog? ;P)
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
it's just like riding a bike...
...once you learn, you never forget.
or so they say.
i am 25 years old. the last time i'd ridden a bike was when i was 13. that's seriously HALF my life ago.
colleen and leigh both have bikes now. i asked leigh if i could try to ride hers around the block tonight to see if i still could.
problem 1. i got on the bike and got going no problem... when i saw an oncoming car and wanted to stop, my gut reaction was to back-pedal. turns out that doesn't do a thing on adult bikes which apparently all have hand brakes... so instead i outpedaled the car to the next block then turned quickly. i figured out handbrakes, but it's counterintuitive to me and not my gut reaction at all.
problem 2. i've never ridden a more-than-single-speed bike before either. apparently all adult bikes have gears. it's a good thing i didn't know this while riding leigh's bike in the dark or i would have flipped out. if i ever convince myself to buy a bike, i think i'd have to leave it in the same gear all the time. that's just too much for me to take in at once in addition to hand brakes.
just like riding a bike, my foot. apparently, graduating from a middle schooler bike to an adult bike is a bit more complicated than it looks.
the end.
or so they say.
i am 25 years old. the last time i'd ridden a bike was when i was 13. that's seriously HALF my life ago.
colleen and leigh both have bikes now. i asked leigh if i could try to ride hers around the block tonight to see if i still could.
problem 1. i got on the bike and got going no problem... when i saw an oncoming car and wanted to stop, my gut reaction was to back-pedal. turns out that doesn't do a thing on adult bikes which apparently all have hand brakes... so instead i outpedaled the car to the next block then turned quickly. i figured out handbrakes, but it's counterintuitive to me and not my gut reaction at all.
problem 2. i've never ridden a more-than-single-speed bike before either. apparently all adult bikes have gears. it's a good thing i didn't know this while riding leigh's bike in the dark or i would have flipped out. if i ever convince myself to buy a bike, i think i'd have to leave it in the same gear all the time. that's just too much for me to take in at once in addition to hand brakes.
just like riding a bike, my foot. apparently, graduating from a middle schooler bike to an adult bike is a bit more complicated than it looks.
the end.
definition, please?
yesterday as i was out walking around my neighborhood, i passed several identical signs in a row reading:
"STOP BUSH! VOTE NOVEMBER 7TH"
that's fine. as i walked past though, i noticed the following small print at the bottom. "sign paid for by 'Our Community Votes', a non-partisan organization"
my post is completely apolitical... and all about vocabulary.
if non-partisan really means "free from party affiliation, bias, or designation" (from merriam-webster online), how can a non-partisan organization be anti-one party and still really non-partisan? sure, they can be free from affiliation or designation, but last i checked, isn't bias against, still biased?... and if they have a party bias (even biased against), aren't they by definition partisan?
give me "MAKE YOURSELF HEARD! VOTE NOVEMBER 7th" or "TAKE A STAND! VOTE NOVEMBER 7th" and I'll call you non-partisan. Say "STOP (fill in blank of any partisan leader)" and i think by definition, you're not.
maybe my fault lies in taking merriam-webster as my standard for vocab definitions... who knows. but contradictions get to me....
the end.
"STOP BUSH! VOTE NOVEMBER 7TH"
that's fine. as i walked past though, i noticed the following small print at the bottom. "sign paid for by 'Our Community Votes', a non-partisan organization"
my post is completely apolitical... and all about vocabulary.
if non-partisan really means "free from party affiliation, bias, or designation" (from merriam-webster online), how can a non-partisan organization be anti-one party and still really non-partisan? sure, they can be free from affiliation or designation, but last i checked, isn't bias against, still biased?... and if they have a party bias (even biased against), aren't they by definition partisan?
give me "MAKE YOURSELF HEARD! VOTE NOVEMBER 7th" or "TAKE A STAND! VOTE NOVEMBER 7th" and I'll call you non-partisan. Say "STOP (fill in blank of any partisan leader)" and i think by definition, you're not.
maybe my fault lies in taking merriam-webster as my standard for vocab definitions... who knows. but contradictions get to me....
the end.
revolve
last week, the new "coordinator of christian education" at my NJ church was plugging the revolve tour. it's in philly the first weekend in november. according to the website: " It’s a weekend of awesome music, amazing stories, faith and fun! It’s an event designed specifically for teen girls (6th – 12th grades) with stuff they need (and want) to know. And according to the girls who’ve been there . . . it’s a life-changing faith-building totally sweet beautiful real honest intense experience!".
ok, 6th-12th grade and "totally sweet", sounds like a target audience a little below my age level, right? and yeah it is.
but just now, i got a call from said "coordinator of christian education". she's like early 30s and really energetic, usually sits near me on sunday mornings and is always way friendly. she said she was brainstorming this week for chaperones for the trip who are young enough to not just be the participants' moms and for the kids to consider "cool", but old enough to actually be entrusted with driving 3-4 other bodies to philly, be responsible for a hotel room full of them, etc.... basically 20/30 somethings who could be good role models for the high schoolers in our church for the weekend and beyond.... she said i came to mind and she had no idea if i'd be interested, and if i wanted a few days to think, or if i just wanted to say "no, that's not my thing" that was fine, but she wanted to throw the idea out there....
are you kidding? i grew up in the same church from age 5 until grad school. when in high school i worked with grade school kids and was a senior high youth group officer/leader... when in college, i still went to conferences and retreats as a "junior chaperone", etc. i miss that stuff. since moving to NJ, (1) i didn't grow up in this church, so i don't know all the families in ways that i'd be comfortable just jumping in and working with the HS youth on my own, (2) i've been super busy studying non stop. but not asking for a permanent "hey help run youth group every week" deal, just being a fun responsible person to get to know the HS girls for a weekend, and actually getting to know some of them instead of just recognizing them on sunday mornings... how cool is that?
i gave an enthusiastic yes, so now i'm way excited about nov 3 and 4. getting more involved in my church in a way i'm excited about is a fantastic happy thing. :)
the end.
ok, 6th-12th grade and "totally sweet", sounds like a target audience a little below my age level, right? and yeah it is.
but just now, i got a call from said "coordinator of christian education". she's like early 30s and really energetic, usually sits near me on sunday mornings and is always way friendly. she said she was brainstorming this week for chaperones for the trip who are young enough to not just be the participants' moms and for the kids to consider "cool", but old enough to actually be entrusted with driving 3-4 other bodies to philly, be responsible for a hotel room full of them, etc.... basically 20/30 somethings who could be good role models for the high schoolers in our church for the weekend and beyond.... she said i came to mind and she had no idea if i'd be interested, and if i wanted a few days to think, or if i just wanted to say "no, that's not my thing" that was fine, but she wanted to throw the idea out there....
are you kidding? i grew up in the same church from age 5 until grad school. when in high school i worked with grade school kids and was a senior high youth group officer/leader... when in college, i still went to conferences and retreats as a "junior chaperone", etc. i miss that stuff. since moving to NJ, (1) i didn't grow up in this church, so i don't know all the families in ways that i'd be comfortable just jumping in and working with the HS youth on my own, (2) i've been super busy studying non stop. but not asking for a permanent "hey help run youth group every week" deal, just being a fun responsible person to get to know the HS girls for a weekend, and actually getting to know some of them instead of just recognizing them on sunday mornings... how cool is that?
i gave an enthusiastic yes, so now i'm way excited about nov 3 and 4. getting more involved in my church in a way i'm excited about is a fantastic happy thing. :)
the end.
ode to books
last night, i finally finished the polysyllabic spree (nick horby). it's a collection of magazine columns he wrote over the course of a little over a year about what he's been reading. considering the intersection between what he read in that span and what i read is almost nothing, i found it amazingly entertaining. sure, he gives reviews of the books, but in process, he tells lots of entertaining stories, and makes fantastic points. it's a worthwhile read if you enjoy reading even a little bit.
next on the list are The History of Eastern Europe for Beginners which is supposed to have a pro-socialist slant and several historical errors, but it's a comic book, and i own it, so it'll be done in a few days anyhow. after that, the bridge at andau by james michener. by all accounts, it's absolutely brilliant. it's a true story of the 1956 revolution against russia in hungary. since that happened in october, i figure the 50th anniversary is perfect timing to read it. (what does my reading list say about me?)
(btw, if you're interested. the hungarians are still protesting. local elections are up in less than a week though. even though the PM (who they're protesting) isn't for election this year, things have calmed and focused on campaigning/voting to deal with frustration... we'll see how it goes next week!)
anywho, while finishing up the hornby book about books last night, i came across this passage that i loved. enjoy:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zaid's finest moment, however, comes in his second paragraph, when he says that "the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more."
That's me! And, you probably! That's us! "Thousands of unread books"! "Truly cultured"! Look at this month's list: Chekhov's letters, Amis's letters, Dylan Thomas's letters... What are the chances of getting through that lot? I've started on the Chekhov, but the Amis and DYlan Thomas have been put straight into their permanent home on the shelves, rather than onto any sort of temporary pending pile. The Dylan Thomas I saw remaindered for fifteen quid (down from fifty) just after I'd read a terrific review of a new Thomas biography in the New Yorker, the Amis letters were a fiver. But as I was finding a home for them in the Arts and Literature non-fiction section (I personally find that for domestic purposes, the Trivial Pursuit system works better than Dewey), I suddenly had a little epiphany: all the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal. My music is me, too, of course -- but as I only really like rock and roll and its imitations, huge chunks of me -- my rarely examined operatic streak, for example -- are unrepresented in my CD collection. And I don't have the wall space or the money for all the art I would want, and my house is a shabby mess, ruined by children... But with each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more and more able to articulate who we are, whether we read the books or not. Maybe that's not worth the thirty odd quid I blew on those collections of letters, admittedly, but it's got to be worth something, right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
next on the list are The History of Eastern Europe for Beginners which is supposed to have a pro-socialist slant and several historical errors, but it's a comic book, and i own it, so it'll be done in a few days anyhow. after that, the bridge at andau by james michener. by all accounts, it's absolutely brilliant. it's a true story of the 1956 revolution against russia in hungary. since that happened in october, i figure the 50th anniversary is perfect timing to read it. (what does my reading list say about me?)
(btw, if you're interested. the hungarians are still protesting. local elections are up in less than a week though. even though the PM (who they're protesting) isn't for election this year, things have calmed and focused on campaigning/voting to deal with frustration... we'll see how it goes next week!)
anywho, while finishing up the hornby book about books last night, i came across this passage that i loved. enjoy:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zaid's finest moment, however, comes in his second paragraph, when he says that "the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more."
That's me! And, you probably! That's us! "Thousands of unread books"! "Truly cultured"! Look at this month's list: Chekhov's letters, Amis's letters, Dylan Thomas's letters... What are the chances of getting through that lot? I've started on the Chekhov, but the Amis and DYlan Thomas have been put straight into their permanent home on the shelves, rather than onto any sort of temporary pending pile. The Dylan Thomas I saw remaindered for fifteen quid (down from fifty) just after I'd read a terrific review of a new Thomas biography in the New Yorker, the Amis letters were a fiver. But as I was finding a home for them in the Arts and Literature non-fiction section (I personally find that for domestic purposes, the Trivial Pursuit system works better than Dewey), I suddenly had a little epiphany: all the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal. My music is me, too, of course -- but as I only really like rock and roll and its imitations, huge chunks of me -- my rarely examined operatic streak, for example -- are unrepresented in my CD collection. And I don't have the wall space or the money for all the art I would want, and my house is a shabby mess, ruined by children... But with each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more and more able to articulate who we are, whether we read the books or not. Maybe that's not worth the thirty odd quid I blew on those collections of letters, admittedly, but it's got to be worth something, right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday, September 23, 2006
students are funny
yesterday, i assigned a computer lab where each student should have gotten an email with individualized data to work with. in response, one of my students wrote me:
"I believe that my points have vanished into the deep, dark, bit ridden,
depth of Internet. They are probably very scared, a bunch of poor points
all alone, so could you please send me them again so they can be warm, and
cozy in my SSH."
undergrads are fun. :)
the end.
"I believe that my points have vanished into the deep, dark, bit ridden,
depth of Internet. They are probably very scared, a bunch of poor points
all alone, so could you please send me them again so they can be warm, and
cozy in my SSH."
undergrads are fun. :)
the end.
Friday, September 22, 2006
feeding the addiction...
i seriously can't stop buying books.
tonight, i was too tired to make dinner (this after teaching from 8:40-1:20, seminar from 1:40-3, colloquium from 4-5, and meeting with a prof from 5-6, all with almost having no voice), so i suggested to leigh that we go out for dinner... we went to chilis and split an appetizer, a huge entree, and a piece of pie... and both got a really reasonable priced meal with still way too much food.
chili's is in the same parking lot as barnes and noble, and despite the fact that i have one non-math book in progress and eight on my floor waiting to be read, despite the fact that i have 2 lectures and a research poster to prepare in the next week and a half on top of my usual responsibilities... i still came home with two more:
* flatterland by ian stewart
* shopaholic takes manhattan by sophie kinsella
tonight reading and tea (i seriously have NO voice after today)... tomorrow grading, programming, and other such math fun... seriously, be jealous.
the end.
p.s. isn't this pretty?
it's what Maple drew when I called up the help/demo code for how to use one of its cooler graphing functions. i thought it was spiffy.
now, really. the end.
tonight, i was too tired to make dinner (this after teaching from 8:40-1:20, seminar from 1:40-3, colloquium from 4-5, and meeting with a prof from 5-6, all with almost having no voice), so i suggested to leigh that we go out for dinner... we went to chilis and split an appetizer, a huge entree, and a piece of pie... and both got a really reasonable priced meal with still way too much food.
chili's is in the same parking lot as barnes and noble, and despite the fact that i have one non-math book in progress and eight on my floor waiting to be read, despite the fact that i have 2 lectures and a research poster to prepare in the next week and a half on top of my usual responsibilities... i still came home with two more:
* flatterland by ian stewart
* shopaholic takes manhattan by sophie kinsella
tonight reading and tea (i seriously have NO voice after today)... tomorrow grading, programming, and other such math fun... seriously, be jealous.
the end.
p.s. isn't this pretty?
it's what Maple drew when I called up the help/demo code for how to use one of its cooler graphing functions. i thought it was spiffy.
now, really. the end.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
likes/dislikes
on my good list
* the ellen show -- now that NBC moved it to 4pm, but NY channel 55 still plays it at 10am, there's twice the opportunity to catch it and often i have it in the background TWICE a day. ellen makes me laugh... plus, when tony left (her DJ), i didn't think anyone else could possibly be as cool, but johnny's growing on me...
* Tylenol sinus -- it's making my week bearable, and without it i'd be running completely on empty right now
* Confessions of a Shopaholic -- just finished it last night. i expected it to be a cute story, but it impressed me more than i expected. i plan to read the others in the shopaholic series now... as soon as i finish off the stack of books on my floor
* the Polysyllabic Spree -- since i finished shopaholic last night, i started this. i was a little worried because it's a series of magazine columns by nick hornby about what he's been reading and the list doesn't overlap tons with what i read, but hey, i figured the subtitle "a hilarious and true account of one man's struggle with the monthly tide of the books he's bought and the books he's been meaning to read" is right up my alley, and i haven't read anything by nick hornby that i didn't enjoy,... anywho, started last night, and it's quite good. it'll only take me a couple days to polish off.
things i don't like
* being sick (as i am at present)
* grading (which i'll have tons of tomorrow)
* having 3 talks to prepare for in the next 2 weeks while sick (welcome to my upcoming weekend)
the end.
* the ellen show -- now that NBC moved it to 4pm, but NY channel 55 still plays it at 10am, there's twice the opportunity to catch it and often i have it in the background TWICE a day. ellen makes me laugh... plus, when tony left (her DJ), i didn't think anyone else could possibly be as cool, but johnny's growing on me...
* Tylenol sinus -- it's making my week bearable, and without it i'd be running completely on empty right now
* Confessions of a Shopaholic -- just finished it last night. i expected it to be a cute story, but it impressed me more than i expected. i plan to read the others in the shopaholic series now... as soon as i finish off the stack of books on my floor
* the Polysyllabic Spree -- since i finished shopaholic last night, i started this. i was a little worried because it's a series of magazine columns by nick hornby about what he's been reading and the list doesn't overlap tons with what i read, but hey, i figured the subtitle "a hilarious and true account of one man's struggle with the monthly tide of the books he's bought and the books he's been meaning to read" is right up my alley, and i haven't read anything by nick hornby that i didn't enjoy,... anywho, started last night, and it's quite good. it'll only take me a couple days to polish off.
things i don't like
* being sick (as i am at present)
* grading (which i'll have tons of tomorrow)
* having 3 talks to prepare for in the next 2 weeks while sick (welcome to my upcoming weekend)
the end.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
dude, what gives?
for the past week, i've been getting calls once a day from verizon customer service. most of the time, they've called while i'm out/busy and i see i missed a call later. i got calls like this at the start of summer, but the time they caught me, they inadvertently hung up on me part way through and never called back.
from my point of view, here's the scoop:
(1) in september 2003, i started a verizon account. i got a 2 year contract that guaranteed me a new free phone when i started my next 2 year contract.
(2) in september 2005, i went to the verizon wireless website and chose said free phone. my understanding was that i was only getting it free because i was renewing my contract.
(3) for the past year, i have happily used my new phone without problem and wanted to keep it for at least another year
from verizon's point of view
(1) #1 above is true
(2) #2 above is half true. they gave me a new free phone without charge through the website, but they didn't renew my contract, so for the past year, i've been paying month to month while i *thought* i was in the middle of a 2 year contract.
(3) apparently you only have 6 months to just "extend" an old contract, and since it's more than 6 months since my 9/03-9/05 contract, either (a) i start a new 2 year contract now 9/06-9/08 and get a new free phone NOW, (b) i start a new 1 year contract and loose the new free phone every 2 years clause, or (c) i keep paying month to month and get begged periodically to start a new contract.
after some discussion and realizing that verizon basically let my contract lapse and me go from month to month without sending me something that says "HEY! your contract is expired, renew before such and such date", i decided (a) was the best option. farewell to my motorola E815 (i love that thing), but instead they're sending me a free razr phone... hopefully i'll get to be friends with that too.
i just wish i had known about points (2) and (3) sooner than a year after my last contract expired.
p.s. i hate being sick.
the end.
from my point of view, here's the scoop:
(1) in september 2003, i started a verizon account. i got a 2 year contract that guaranteed me a new free phone when i started my next 2 year contract.
(2) in september 2005, i went to the verizon wireless website and chose said free phone. my understanding was that i was only getting it free because i was renewing my contract.
(3) for the past year, i have happily used my new phone without problem and wanted to keep it for at least another year
from verizon's point of view
(1) #1 above is true
(2) #2 above is half true. they gave me a new free phone without charge through the website, but they didn't renew my contract, so for the past year, i've been paying month to month while i *thought* i was in the middle of a 2 year contract.
(3) apparently you only have 6 months to just "extend" an old contract, and since it's more than 6 months since my 9/03-9/05 contract, either (a) i start a new 2 year contract now 9/06-9/08 and get a new free phone NOW, (b) i start a new 1 year contract and loose the new free phone every 2 years clause, or (c) i keep paying month to month and get begged periodically to start a new contract.
after some discussion and realizing that verizon basically let my contract lapse and me go from month to month without sending me something that says "HEY! your contract is expired, renew before such and such date", i decided (a) was the best option. farewell to my motorola E815 (i love that thing), but instead they're sending me a free razr phone... hopefully i'll get to be friends with that too.
i just wish i had known about points (2) and (3) sooner than a year after my last contract expired.
p.s. i hate being sick.
the end.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
we shall see how this goes...
the news version:
Rioters, police clash again on Budapest streets
the one of lara's budapest friends version:
"Dear Lara!
I have sent you an sms last night when the people started to seige the Hungarian television, I am sorry if you did not receive it.
Yes, we are safe and beside yesterday's clashes - which were mainly provoked by football hulligans - the city is quiet and the protestors are calm. This government must go and I am very very happy that the nation has risen her voice.
Do not worry, everything is ok!"
Rioters, police clash again on Budapest streets
the one of lara's budapest friends version:
"Dear Lara!
I have sent you an sms last night when the people started to seige the Hungarian television, I am sorry if you did not receive it.
Yes, we are safe and beside yesterday's clashes - which were mainly provoked by football hulligans - the city is quiet and the protestors are calm. This government must go and I am very very happy that the nation has risen her voice.
Do not worry, everything is ok!"
oi
apparently my brother doesn't like my parents' oldest cat anymore. check out the picture message he just sent me:
oh hungary....
last month, while chatting with some of my hungarian friends, a couple of them remarked that the current government was not that great for the country and that they felt like hungary was ready for a revolution. that the country needed a change before it deteriorated even further. the current prime minister (from the socialist party) has been less than impressive from what i've read in the past few years. now, today, here's the headlines out of budapest (it's not often they make TV news, but when they do, it's big)
Pray for my REU students who are there, pray for my Hungarian friends who are there, pray that Hungary finds leadership that can do an honest job rather than make a mockery out of government by being a socialist country that calls itself a democracy. In name, they threw the chains of communism over 16 years ago, but in reality old ways die hard, and/or ressurect themselves under new guises and people are just "ok" with it. Pray that while people continue to take a stand against the way the government's been screwing them over that violence stays at a minimum (or for no violence at all).
oi....
pray for the Hungarians.
the end.
- 'Lies' admission fuels fire (Budapest Sun)
- Protesters storm Hungarian state TV (Yahoo news)
- Defiant Hungary PM urges calm after riots (Yahoo news)
- Anti-PM protest in Hungary turns violent (MSNBC)
- Hungarian PM refuses to resign (CNN... with video)
Pray for my REU students who are there, pray for my Hungarian friends who are there, pray that Hungary finds leadership that can do an honest job rather than make a mockery out of government by being a socialist country that calls itself a democracy. In name, they threw the chains of communism over 16 years ago, but in reality old ways die hard, and/or ressurect themselves under new guises and people are just "ok" with it. Pray that while people continue to take a stand against the way the government's been screwing them over that violence stays at a minimum (or for no violence at all).
oi....
pray for the Hungarians.
the end.
Monday, September 18, 2006
a TEA party?!
long day of math after waking up majorly stuffed up... yuck.
i spent early afternoon working with scott at panera, mid afternoon in my advisor's office getting disheartened about what i spent several hopeless hours chipping away at yesterday, and late afernoon in my room preparing for the lecture i have to give tomorrow. when eric stopped by my office mid afternoon just before i left campus i asked
me: "hey, do you like quiznos?"
eric: "um sure"
me: hey, do you like quiznos today?"
eric: "um, sure, what time?"
me: "after your meeting with z?"
eric: "4pm? i don't think so. how about 6 oclock?"
me: "ok, let's do it."
we ate at quiznos and sat outside, and quickly realized why we don't usually. although it was perfect weather for outside, the quiznos tables are on a slanted sidewalk. they don't look crooked, but when you sit, your tray slides down the table towards the street unless you hang on to it the whole time. oops. since most of our dinner discussion was about how we both felt alright all weekend and both woke up congested today the following was especially entertaining:
me: "hey, do you like a cookie?"
eric: "i don't know, do i?"
me: "i think you do."
eric: "maybe, i think my throat likes tea better."
me: "ooooh!"
eric: "um, yeeeeeees?"
me: "what about a TEA party!... tea AND cookie!" (tea party onward pronounced in my best fake british accent possible)
eric: "ooh! i think i would quite fancy a tea party" (also in his best fake british accent)
we then decided that since eric had never had scones (how is that possible?!) we should go to the grocery store to get scones and cookies. then, "tea party" is loosely defined as eric and me with a plate of scones and cookies, and funky flavored tea, reading "go dog go" and discussing math in our most fake british accents possible. it was fun. we decided we need "tea parties" more often, especially when we both have sore throats. photos:
eric's first scones EVER, plus ENTERTAINING cookies (they seriously did a jig in the box in the store to convince us to buy them ;)... plus, as the box says 42 delicious cookies in 9 delectable varities... you can't say no to 42)
fuzzy tea party picture
this face says it all
non-tea party. i found this book this weekend in baltimore. the author of a whole calc book where EVERY problem is about making pizza? my HERO
wish me luck for having a voice tomorrow... nothing all day except that i substitute lecture for the calc 3 honors section at 5.
later dudes. the end.
i spent early afternoon working with scott at panera, mid afternoon in my advisor's office getting disheartened about what i spent several hopeless hours chipping away at yesterday, and late afernoon in my room preparing for the lecture i have to give tomorrow. when eric stopped by my office mid afternoon just before i left campus i asked
me: "hey, do you like quiznos?"
eric: "um sure"
me: hey, do you like quiznos today?"
eric: "um, sure, what time?"
me: "after your meeting with z?"
eric: "4pm? i don't think so. how about 6 oclock?"
me: "ok, let's do it."
we ate at quiznos and sat outside, and quickly realized why we don't usually. although it was perfect weather for outside, the quiznos tables are on a slanted sidewalk. they don't look crooked, but when you sit, your tray slides down the table towards the street unless you hang on to it the whole time. oops. since most of our dinner discussion was about how we both felt alright all weekend and both woke up congested today the following was especially entertaining:
me: "hey, do you like a cookie?"
eric: "i don't know, do i?"
me: "i think you do."
eric: "maybe, i think my throat likes tea better."
me: "ooooh!"
eric: "um, yeeeeeees?"
me: "what about a TEA party!... tea AND cookie!" (tea party onward pronounced in my best fake british accent possible)
eric: "ooh! i think i would quite fancy a tea party" (also in his best fake british accent)
we then decided that since eric had never had scones (how is that possible?!) we should go to the grocery store to get scones and cookies. then, "tea party" is loosely defined as eric and me with a plate of scones and cookies, and funky flavored tea, reading "go dog go" and discussing math in our most fake british accents possible. it was fun. we decided we need "tea parties" more often, especially when we both have sore throats. photos:
eric's first scones EVER, plus ENTERTAINING cookies (they seriously did a jig in the box in the store to convince us to buy them ;)... plus, as the box says 42 delicious cookies in 9 delectable varities... you can't say no to 42)
fuzzy tea party picture
this face says it all
non-tea party. i found this book this weekend in baltimore. the author of a whole calc book where EVERY problem is about making pizza? my HERO
wish me luck for having a voice tomorrow... nothing all day except that i substitute lecture for the calc 3 honors section at 5.
later dudes. the end.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
12000 words (i.e. 12 pictures)
11 from baltimore yesterday, 1 from this afternoon:
this is a great sign.
little bird
crazy people
take 2
roommate, heather, me, and baltimore
cool flag picture
the building... has a hand?
i love how you can just say "hey heather, go get in the tree", and she does it... even if there's freaky things inside the tree with her. :)
funky sculpture
... with a rainbow
if you look close enough, it's actually a double rainbow!
end of baltimore.
finally... happiness is: going to kohls during a HUGE sale and having the first pair of jeans you try on be a *perfect* fit. here's most of what i came home with this afternoon (plus one more shirt, and 3 pairs of earrings... all for under $150.)
the end.
this is a great sign.
little bird
crazy people
take 2
roommate, heather, me, and baltimore
cool flag picture
the building... has a hand?
i love how you can just say "hey heather, go get in the tree", and she does it... even if there's freaky things inside the tree with her. :)
funky sculpture
... with a rainbow
if you look close enough, it's actually a double rainbow!
end of baltimore.
finally... happiness is: going to kohls during a HUGE sale and having the first pair of jeans you try on be a *perfect* fit. here's most of what i came home with this afternoon (plus one more shirt, and 3 pairs of earrings... all for under $150.)
the end.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
doht
the facts:
(1) roommate had the most crazy stressful week ever
(2) roommate is taking the weekend off to recoup and build up energy for next week
(3) roommate decided to spend said weekend off in baltimore visiting heather m.
(4) roommate IMed me yesterday asking "you wouldn't just happen to be free tomorrow and want to drive to baltimore, would you?"
(4') (the answer to the previous question is, "i have a sh*tload of stuff to do, but if you really really want/need me there i can drop it and be there")
(5) although the response to (4') was, "i don't *need* you there, but it would be really nice to see you", i decided to work like crazy last night, and i'll work like crazy sunday and monday so that today is as follows:
drive to south of baltimore, catching lunch on the way south
hang out with roommate and heather til 8-9pmish
drive right on back to jersey and crash around midnight/1am (shortly after returning)
exciting right?
wish me good roads!
later dudes.
(1) roommate had the most crazy stressful week ever
(2) roommate is taking the weekend off to recoup and build up energy for next week
(3) roommate decided to spend said weekend off in baltimore visiting heather m.
(4) roommate IMed me yesterday asking "you wouldn't just happen to be free tomorrow and want to drive to baltimore, would you?"
(4') (the answer to the previous question is, "i have a sh*tload of stuff to do, but if you really really want/need me there i can drop it and be there")
(5) although the response to (4') was, "i don't *need* you there, but it would be really nice to see you", i decided to work like crazy last night, and i'll work like crazy sunday and monday so that today is as follows:
drive to south of baltimore, catching lunch on the way south
hang out with roommate and heather til 8-9pmish
drive right on back to jersey and crash around midnight/1am (shortly after returning)
exciting right?
wish me good roads!
later dudes.
Friday, September 15, 2006
mooooooovie
scott, eric, tamar and me just saw the last kiss (new zach braff movie that came out today) i've been looking forward to it for a bit... because after all it's zach braff! it was... different than i expected. i'm glad i saw it, but i don't think i'll get the dvd for once.
the moral of the story that i told eric, scott, and tamar was "relationships suck. avoid them." of course since eric and laurie have been together for 6-7 months now and scott and tamar have been together for a bit, all of them were like "no, of course that's not it." and i know that's not what they were trying to get at in the movie, but there were so many screwed up relationships in it that i just had to say it.
really, truly, i think i just honestly don't believe in love anymore. at all. i believe in God, and truth, and really good friends, mathematical logic/rigor/proof. but i don't believe in romance at all.... and it would take a h*ll of a person/situation to change that.
lara... ever the optimist! the end.
the moral of the story that i told eric, scott, and tamar was "relationships suck. avoid them." of course since eric and laurie have been together for 6-7 months now and scott and tamar have been together for a bit, all of them were like "no, of course that's not it." and i know that's not what they were trying to get at in the movie, but there were so many screwed up relationships in it that i just had to say it.
really, truly, i think i just honestly don't believe in love anymore. at all. i believe in God, and truth, and really good friends, mathematical logic/rigor/proof. but i don't believe in romance at all.... and it would take a h*ll of a person/situation to change that.
lara... ever the optimist! the end.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
this is too cool!
i like watching the ellen show in the morning while i have breakfast. today, not only did she have zach braff (one of my heroes, so major yay for that!), but she also started a new segment called "people you should know". her first guest was this kid:
The Boy Who Sees with Sound
he's absolutely amazing. he's 14, been blind since age 2, but gets around by clicking and listening for echoes. his mom was fairly cool too. she said her philosophy with him is that "you're ben, you can do anything." and that when people criticize her philosophy of raising him with "but he can't see, so he can't (fill in the blank)", she replies "he'll learn whatever he wants. he'll figure it out. he may bump his head once, but he's not stupid, he's not going to bump it twice." more people (both who can see and who can't!) need this attitude.
read the article. it's super cool.
the end.
The Boy Who Sees with Sound
he's absolutely amazing. he's 14, been blind since age 2, but gets around by clicking and listening for echoes. his mom was fairly cool too. she said her philosophy with him is that "you're ben, you can do anything." and that when people criticize her philosophy of raising him with "but he can't see, so he can't (fill in the blank)", she replies "he'll learn whatever he wants. he'll figure it out. he may bump his head once, but he's not stupid, he's not going to bump it twice." more people (both who can see and who can't!) need this attitude.
read the article. it's super cool.
the end.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
some rest?
i thought this semester would be awesome since i'm not taking any classes... just teaching calc3, and working on my own research.
furthermore, i scheduled all the busy "other" stuff for early on, so i could get work done... i made the maple help pages for the department website before school started, i gave a pizza seminar today so that they couldn't harass me for the rest of the semester... but apparently i'm just in demand.
* dr. z. was asked to sub for another professor on sept. 19. dr. z. can't then, so he suggested me, and i agreed, figuring since it's calc 3, i know it all down pat. just got an email from the prof i'll be subbing for, and it turns out he wants me to cover 2 sections that generally get skipped in the regular calc 3 sections, but he's covering since he's teaching the honors section... study time for lara. oi...
* i'm subbing for dr. z. on october 2. i knew about this in advance, but that's still another lecture to prepare.
* i just got an email from the grad student in charge of the princeton "pizza seminar" equivalent. because (1) my talk from last fall was such a hit here, (2) the pizza seminar coordinator at rutgers from last fall and the pizza seminar coordinator at princeton last year are married (so they discuss such things), (3) apparently princeton wants some visiting grad students to give good talks to give new students an idea of what an "ideal" pizza talk is like, it was suggested that there be a speaker exchange, where speakers who did well at rutgers could talk at princeton at vice versa, plus it helps the organizers since they don't have to track down as many people. apparently i'm giving the princeton "pizza seminar" on october 3 now. this means i have to find my notes from a year ago and remember how all the material works to present it.
* aek and i are going to a conference in california october 7. we got funding to go, but the funding was contingent on submitting posters to the conference, so between now and october 7, (actually now and october 6) i need to plan a 4' by 4' poster explaining the research i presented in iceland in june... again, stuff i know/proved myself, but remembering how to do all the details and explain in a clear manner and make it visually appealing takes time.
summary: it's suddenly shaping up to be a downright CRAZY month.
in happy news, i got an email today asking me to please be the grad organizer for the REU again. i need to talk things out with a couple profs to see if (a) it's possible for me to teach my own course (as lecturer, not TA) next fall, and (b) if not, does it look bad to have not taught my own class before i graduate? (if i didn't run the REU, i would be guaranteed a summer teaching position). we shall see...
suddenly my life is surprisingly busy... this is what i get for being a findable member of the department who says yes when people ask things nicely. :P
furthermore, i scheduled all the busy "other" stuff for early on, so i could get work done... i made the maple help pages for the department website before school started, i gave a pizza seminar today so that they couldn't harass me for the rest of the semester... but apparently i'm just in demand.
* dr. z. was asked to sub for another professor on sept. 19. dr. z. can't then, so he suggested me, and i agreed, figuring since it's calc 3, i know it all down pat. just got an email from the prof i'll be subbing for, and it turns out he wants me to cover 2 sections that generally get skipped in the regular calc 3 sections, but he's covering since he's teaching the honors section... study time for lara. oi...
* i'm subbing for dr. z. on october 2. i knew about this in advance, but that's still another lecture to prepare.
* i just got an email from the grad student in charge of the princeton "pizza seminar" equivalent. because (1) my talk from last fall was such a hit here, (2) the pizza seminar coordinator at rutgers from last fall and the pizza seminar coordinator at princeton last year are married (so they discuss such things), (3) apparently princeton wants some visiting grad students to give good talks to give new students an idea of what an "ideal" pizza talk is like, it was suggested that there be a speaker exchange, where speakers who did well at rutgers could talk at princeton at vice versa, plus it helps the organizers since they don't have to track down as many people. apparently i'm giving the princeton "pizza seminar" on october 3 now. this means i have to find my notes from a year ago and remember how all the material works to present it.
* aek and i are going to a conference in california october 7. we got funding to go, but the funding was contingent on submitting posters to the conference, so between now and october 7, (actually now and october 6) i need to plan a 4' by 4' poster explaining the research i presented in iceland in june... again, stuff i know/proved myself, but remembering how to do all the details and explain in a clear manner and make it visually appealing takes time.
summary: it's suddenly shaping up to be a downright CRAZY month.
in happy news, i got an email today asking me to please be the grad organizer for the REU again. i need to talk things out with a couple profs to see if (a) it's possible for me to teach my own course (as lecturer, not TA) next fall, and (b) if not, does it look bad to have not taught my own class before i graduate? (if i didn't run the REU, i would be guaranteed a summer teaching position). we shall see...
suddenly my life is surprisingly busy... this is what i get for being a findable member of the department who says yes when people ask things nicely. :P
