oi... what a day!

two and a half firsts

(1) i got an letter that a math paper i submitted for publication in october was accepted pending some revisions. this is the fifth published paper to my name, and the first one with *just* my name on it. we'll count this as half a first.

(2) excited about said acceptance, i wrote to tell my advisor. he quickly emailed back the strangest response i've gotten in congratulations. excerpts follow:
"Thanks for ruining my day. It is a very big insult to have a paper accepted these days, since it means that it is understood by stupid editors and referees, and hence is probably very shallow. Then again, it is sometimes possible that a really good paper gets accepted for the wrong reasons, and that was probably the case with your paper. So your paper is excellent in spite of the fact that it was accepted. Seriously, congratulations on your first single-authored paper!"

The last line puts it in context, but the before that... that's not a response i'd gotten before after sharing good news. ;)

(3) i went to a comedy club for the first time! one of my REU kids who is a rutgers student is on the email list for the stress factory (a local comedy club 5 minutes from my house). she heard about a free show tonight that only got announced via email, and she booked a table for 14 of us (me and 13 of my REUers)... the opening act was this guy followed up by this guy. I don't know much about comedians and this was my first time at a comedy club, but I definitely had a great time.

seriously, these REUers are great for me... they've bonded well together *and* they get me out of the house.

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in other news (non-firsts), ever since thanksgiving, i've been rereading the chronicles of narnia. i read the lion, the witch, an the wardrobe over the course of thanksgiving weekend so i had finished it before the movie. I read prince caspian, the voyage of the dawn treader, and the silver chair throughout december, and i read the horse and his boy in january quickly before my oral qualifying exam. then, i took a break on account of orals and other such fun, and didn't pick up the magician's nephew until 2 weeks ago. i read it entirely on the flight back from iceland plus about an hour the next day. now, i'm mostly through the last battle, and in total awe of the series again. i seriously hadn't read them since about 4th grade, and they're still just as good if not better this time around. i *love* it.

in final book-reading news, here's proof that i'm a math nerd. yesterday, thinking about how i was nearing the end of narnia, i decided i needed more reading material on my desk... so what do i do? i went to the rutgers math library and checked out 4 undergraduate books: linear algebra, glimpses of algebra and geometry, a walk through combinatorics, and basic posets,.... all just for "fun reading". you should be totally jealous.

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firsts, reading material, and oh yes... math

* i met with my advisor yesterday. it was a productive meeting, but now he's out of town for 3 weeks... hopefully i'll continue to be productive

* in order to get the grant i won for this coming year, i need to submit a 8x10 and a 3x5 photo of myself to them by july 1st... that's saturday... i've had the 8x10 for a bit, but i've had a heck of a time finding a place that makes 3x5s... i finally did last week, and ordered one for 19 cents, but it's not here yet, so tomorrow i'm going to play with my printer and make my own... oi... then yay for 2 day mail.

* today i had a panel for my REUers on graduate school... i had two clever profs -- one from math and one from computer science -- come in just to answer questions for an hour and a half... it was fairly useful. tomorrow night i'm on a panel of grad students for the rutgers biomedical REU... 8 of my own students are coming too, it's gonna be a packed house, and i'll get to tell them all how delightful it is to be a math ph.d. wanna be... really, i have a fantastic summer job (that comes with lots of free food opportunities!)

i think i'm done rambling... i really like to type! time to finish the last narnia book... night y'all!