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.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
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.
