* the following conversation:
(talking to scott about math stuff, i notice he's looking at me funny and trying to figure out what's different)
me: well?
scott: are you wearing lipstick today?
me: um, nope, but what's actually different?
scott: you're wearing makeup!
me: um, duh, but i did my makeup the exact same today as i've been doing it for the past like 6 years
scott: hmm... oh wait! you got your ears pierced!
me: bingo... ben was betting you wouldn't notice without being told, good job.
scott: are you sure you didn't do anything else different?
me: absolutely nothing
scott: *scrutinizes my face*
me: funny how piercing my ears makes you think the rest of me changed too, when it hasn't at all
(& etc.)
(eric had similar comments, he just didn't put 2 and 2 together until after he heard scott)
* making meggyleves (= sour cherry soup... it's served as a cold appetizer in hungary in the summer... i hadn't tried to make it in 2 years but when eric and i were at the grocery store we saw cherries in the produce section that weren't maraschinos, so i HAD to do it... it turned out brilliant, eric agreed
* sitting on the porch in the dark for half an hour with a cup of tea
* while on the porch watching a cat climb a tree, jump from the tree to a telephone wire, and cross the street ON the telephone wire, zig zag around the block via telephone lines, and climb down another tree
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
a thought
mastering our moods
After an interview with someone, Abraham Lincoln remarked to his secretary, "I don't like that man's face."
His secretary reacted in amazement, "But that's what his face is; he's not responsible for his face."
And Lincoln replied tartly, "After forty, every man is responsible for his face."
My face is the mirror of my moods. After four decades of dying and rising, I should have acquired sufficient emotional maturity to master my moods and maintain a tranquil facial expression. I think that's what Honest Abe was implying.
I would not be writing this little chapter if a woman had not asked me this morning, "Why are you in such a rotten mood?"
All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast. Proverbs 15:15
~Brennan Manning, Reflections for Ragamuffins, p. 149
After an interview with someone, Abraham Lincoln remarked to his secretary, "I don't like that man's face."
His secretary reacted in amazement, "But that's what his face is; he's not responsible for his face."
And Lincoln replied tartly, "After forty, every man is responsible for his face."
My face is the mirror of my moods. After four decades of dying and rising, I should have acquired sufficient emotional maturity to master my moods and maintain a tranquil facial expression. I think that's what Honest Abe was implying.
I would not be writing this little chapter if a woman had not asked me this morning, "Why are you in such a rotten mood?"
All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast. Proverbs 15:15
~Brennan Manning, Reflections for Ragamuffins, p. 149
Monday, May 30, 2005
ode to walking
if i've never mentioned it before, i live in the perfect neighborhood for walking.
and today was perfect weather.
and here it was 9pm, and i had energy but didn't know what to do with it.
.... sooooooooooooooooo, i went for a walk.
where i grew up in memphis, there's not a sidewalk on my stretch of the street and it's kinda not well lit either... down the road there's a subdivision, but every time i'd ever ridden a bike through there i ended up being chased by strange dogs... in valpo there was campus, or my apartment complex, but it was also full of lots of younger people too (not necessarily a bad thing)... but here... lots of houses and families, but nice and quiet and decently lit... i just spent 40 minutes wandering my neighborhood, and it was *wonderful*...
i need to make more of a habit of this :-P
and today was perfect weather.
and here it was 9pm, and i had energy but didn't know what to do with it.
.... sooooooooooooooooo, i went for a walk.
where i grew up in memphis, there's not a sidewalk on my stretch of the street and it's kinda not well lit either... down the road there's a subdivision, but every time i'd ever ridden a bike through there i ended up being chased by strange dogs... in valpo there was campus, or my apartment complex, but it was also full of lots of younger people too (not necessarily a bad thing)... but here... lots of houses and families, but nice and quiet and decently lit... i just spent 40 minutes wandering my neighborhood, and it was *wonderful*...
i need to make more of a habit of this :-P
Sunday, May 29, 2005
...and who are you?
i had a two way tie :-)
Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
Yoda | 67% | ||
R2-D2 | 67% | ||
Padme Amidala | 61% | ||
Darth Vader | 61% | ||
Obi Wan Kenobi | 56% | ||
C-3PO | 50% | ||
Anakin Skywalker | 44% | ||
Chewbacca | 44% | ||
Clone Trooper | 39% | ||
Mace Windu | 39% | ||
General Grievous | 39% | ||
Emperor Palpatine | 25% |
Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
on a lighter note...
my aunt just called
apparently this time around g-ma just has a urinary tract infection, which is very treatable... unless something else comes up, she should be back in her nursing home later in the week.
for everyone making a point of calling around way early this morning, that's not half bad to hear :-)
later dudes
apparently this time around g-ma just has a urinary tract infection, which is very treatable... unless something else comes up, she should be back in her nursing home later in the week.
for everyone making a point of calling around way early this morning, that's not half bad to hear :-)
later dudes
did you know.... ?
that there's a hymn in the lutheran hymnal supplement (with one voice #778: O Christ the Same) to the tune of "danny boy"? i didn't until this morning when we sang it at church. that made me smile :-)
the end.
the end.
oi
gotta love those phone calls that come an hour and a half or two before you plan to wake up... they can NEVER be good news.
10 minutes ago, mom called. grandma's nursing home called her an hour ago (6:30 eastern/5:30 central) to say that grandma was vomitting blood again and had it coming out the other end as well... they're taking her to the hospital again right now, and "she's not at death's door, but it's serious".
as soon as i hung up from that and got my bearings a little better (the phone totally woke me up), my aunt priscilla called from her car to tell me the same.... she's en route to the hospital right now.
this is going to be an interesting week.
10 minutes ago, mom called. grandma's nursing home called her an hour ago (6:30 eastern/5:30 central) to say that grandma was vomitting blood again and had it coming out the other end as well... they're taking her to the hospital again right now, and "she's not at death's door, but it's serious".
as soon as i hung up from that and got my bearings a little better (the phone totally woke me up), my aunt priscilla called from her car to tell me the same.... she's en route to the hospital right now.
this is going to be an interesting week.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
troubles come in threes?
(1) uncle art (dad's mom's little brother) -- was supposed to get a new pacemaker 2 weeks ago but fell and broke his hip first... since in the hospital he's contracted liver issues and the doctors today give him 3 days to live tops.
(2) grandma (mom's mom) in pittsburgh is apparently not doing well. her nursing home called mom when they couldn't reach aunt priscilla an hour ago. (mom's 2nd on the close family call list after pris); they said she's changed condition and can't keep anything in but water and is very pale and non-responsive to their attempts to help; if she contracts a fever, they'll take her to the hospital. after she seemed sooo near death last time this happened, there's a chance this COULD be it. after things looking so somber last time though, my initial reaction wasn't quite as immediate panic attack as before. if this really is the end, i'll react more strongly then, but for right now i guess i'm a little more tense and aware of the potential gravity of the situation, but not freaking out about it just yet.
(3) same grandma's sister marie is in hospice care on account of cancer (i believe breast cancer, but don't quote me on that) and expected to die within the next couple weeks.
all three of the above have amazing faith and i know they'll be in heaven when they're gone. that IS a comforting fact. we all have to die sometime, it's just, even if you know that someone's ready to go and at peace with their situation, it doesn't mean it won't leave a hole in your heart when they are gone.
i honestly had no emotional reaction until i started writing this, and now that i'm typing, i'm actually starting to think... oi... i think it's time for some non-computer think time... :-P
night y'all... please keep my uncle art, aunt marie, and grandma in your prayers :-)
(2) grandma (mom's mom) in pittsburgh is apparently not doing well. her nursing home called mom when they couldn't reach aunt priscilla an hour ago. (mom's 2nd on the close family call list after pris); they said she's changed condition and can't keep anything in but water and is very pale and non-responsive to their attempts to help; if she contracts a fever, they'll take her to the hospital. after she seemed sooo near death last time this happened, there's a chance this COULD be it. after things looking so somber last time though, my initial reaction wasn't quite as immediate panic attack as before. if this really is the end, i'll react more strongly then, but for right now i guess i'm a little more tense and aware of the potential gravity of the situation, but not freaking out about it just yet.
(3) same grandma's sister marie is in hospice care on account of cancer (i believe breast cancer, but don't quote me on that) and expected to die within the next couple weeks.
all three of the above have amazing faith and i know they'll be in heaven when they're gone. that IS a comforting fact. we all have to die sometime, it's just, even if you know that someone's ready to go and at peace with their situation, it doesn't mean it won't leave a hole in your heart when they are gone.
i honestly had no emotional reaction until i started writing this, and now that i'm typing, i'm actually starting to think... oi... i think it's time for some non-computer think time... :-P
night y'all... please keep my uncle art, aunt marie, and grandma in your prayers :-)
dude
*on the phone*
ben: um hi, so why am i supposed to call you before i eat lunch?
me: so you can eat lunch with me after my devious plot!
ben: oooh! you've got my interest, what's your devious plot?
me: you're going to laugh at me.
ben: lara, i've been awake for 5 minutes, i'm not coherent enough to laugh at anything
me: fine,... i think you want to come with me to the mall to get my ears pierced and then go get lunch with me
ben: why was i going to laugh?
me: because i haven't thought about doing this in over 10 years
ben: what? you haven't been to paneras in 10 years? that's a lie.
me: um duh, haven't had my ears pierced since i was 10... try again.
apparently i've convinced myself it's a good idea to get my ears repierced today, and yesterday i painted all my fingernails and toenails ice blue (see below)
what is wrong with me?!?!
ben: um hi, so why am i supposed to call you before i eat lunch?
me: so you can eat lunch with me after my devious plot!
ben: oooh! you've got my interest, what's your devious plot?
me: you're going to laugh at me.
ben: lara, i've been awake for 5 minutes, i'm not coherent enough to laugh at anything
me: fine,... i think you want to come with me to the mall to get my ears pierced and then go get lunch with me
ben: why was i going to laugh?
me: because i haven't thought about doing this in over 10 years
ben: what? you haven't been to paneras in 10 years? that's a lie.
me: um duh, haven't had my ears pierced since i was 10... try again.
apparently i've convinced myself it's a good idea to get my ears repierced today, and yesterday i painted all my fingernails and toenails ice blue (see below)
what is wrong with me?!?!
Friday, May 27, 2005
it's official
i've now watched every single bit of all 3 scrubs, season 1 dvds... favorite episodes are "my old lady" (episode 3), and "my hero" (episode 23), although there aren't any i didn't enjoy :-P... like was said over and over in the commentary those are the two that are a little more dramatic than the others and purposefully so, so that's probably something to do with it.
nonetheless, even after innudating myself with it for several days straight, i still think it's fantastic and i can't wait for season 2 to appear!
later dudes
nonetheless, even after innudating myself with it for several days straight, i still think it's fantastic and i can't wait for season 2 to appear!
later dudes
random fun
days and days of it being nasty and chilly here and suddenly today it's gorgeous and like 80 degrees outside -- i should move my plants out to the balcony for summer after i finish rambling.
leigh's mom is visiting until next wednesday... they're funny together. her mom's a librarian at baylor and leigh's totally a bookworm anyhow so the two of them spend an awful lot of time just reading in the same room; it's kinda fun.
REU starts in like a week... a few loose ends to tie up, but those will get done in time... apparently, even though i've never lived in a rutgers dorm, i have to give a presentation to the REU students on housing policies and i can't get any of their handouts until next week... oi.... that'll be entertaining, right?
someone at barnes and noble screwed up. i was all excited about the $200 math book my mom was getting me? i got it earlier in the week, still in shrinkwrap... very exciting. then today, i get a second copy of it! i checked bn.com as well as my credit card statement, and both say they only charged me for 1. if i were a less honest person, they'd be out $200 worth in out-of-print book.
finally, been watching the scrubs season one dvd like crazy. it's on 3 discs, each with 8 episodes plus bonus features... i've watched ALL of discs 1 and 2, and will start 3 after running some errands shortly.
and that's my day. i'm soooo enjoying giving myself several weeks off from thinking hard, next week/the week after that are gonna be a little tricky to get myself working as hard as i should... oops!
later dudes
leigh's mom is visiting until next wednesday... they're funny together. her mom's a librarian at baylor and leigh's totally a bookworm anyhow so the two of them spend an awful lot of time just reading in the same room; it's kinda fun.
REU starts in like a week... a few loose ends to tie up, but those will get done in time... apparently, even though i've never lived in a rutgers dorm, i have to give a presentation to the REU students on housing policies and i can't get any of their handouts until next week... oi.... that'll be entertaining, right?
someone at barnes and noble screwed up. i was all excited about the $200 math book my mom was getting me? i got it earlier in the week, still in shrinkwrap... very exciting. then today, i get a second copy of it! i checked bn.com as well as my credit card statement, and both say they only charged me for 1. if i were a less honest person, they'd be out $200 worth in out-of-print book.
finally, been watching the scrubs season one dvd like crazy. it's on 3 discs, each with 8 episodes plus bonus features... i've watched ALL of discs 1 and 2, and will start 3 after running some errands shortly.
and that's my day. i'm soooo enjoying giving myself several weeks off from thinking hard, next week/the week after that are gonna be a little tricky to get myself working as hard as i should... oops!
later dudes
Thursday, May 26, 2005
random
travis: heya's! if you get free... i'd love a word with ya!
Auto response from me: stuff
me: i'm around more or less :-P
travis: then i am blessed!
travis: *kinda rhymes*
me: kinda
travis: kinda rhymes, i'm kinda blessed.. it's all around, eh
travis: anyways...
travis: i had jury duty...
me: that's exciting
travis: it kinda was!
travis: but, i was the ONLY person who jumped up when they called my number before jury selection, instead of waiting for my name.
me: 42?
travis: later, they (rest of jury) asked how i knew my number....
travis: YES!
me: lol
travis: jurer number 42...... *i'm half way up* travis?
travis: i saw the list when they checked me in, and there was NO WAY i would forget that.
travis: i thought of you
travis: and was like.. Lara will soooo dig that.
me: that's pretty funny
travis: but, since only 9 of us sit on the jury, i had to change my number.. and became jurer number one.
travis: *thus, i was the first to say she was guilty.. yay*
Auto response from me: stuff
me: i'm around more or less :-P
travis: then i am blessed!
travis: *kinda rhymes*
me: kinda
travis: kinda rhymes, i'm kinda blessed.. it's all around, eh
travis: anyways...
travis: i had jury duty...
me: that's exciting
travis: it kinda was!
travis: but, i was the ONLY person who jumped up when they called my number before jury selection, instead of waiting for my name.
me: 42?
travis: later, they (rest of jury) asked how i knew my number....
travis: YES!
me: lol
travis: jurer number 42...... *i'm half way up* travis?
travis: i saw the list when they checked me in, and there was NO WAY i would forget that.
travis: i thought of you
travis: and was like.. Lara will soooo dig that.
me: that's pretty funny
travis: but, since only 9 of us sit on the jury, i had to change my number.. and became jurer number one.
travis: *thus, i was the first to say she was guilty.. yay*
the tale of the return trip
slightly delayed, but now illustrated, so that should make up for it ;-)
left memphis friday morning, early enough to get to st. louis for lunchtime with dave beagley -- here we are:
we had lunch at fitz's, a rootbeer bottling company, however even though we were seated right next to the rootbeer making part of the building (they have glass walls so you can watch them work), they were mostly off on *their* lunch break while we ate. it was still a very cool place... :-)
from there, it was northward bound to my grandma p.'s place in NE illinois.
that would obviously be my grandma and me... and if you're smart you'll know that it was taken sunday around lunchtime, because sunday morning is just about the only time you might *possibly* find me in a skirt :-P
here's an awesome sunset, taken from my grandma's yard on sunday night before i left.
monday morning, i was eastward bound, with my first step being good old valpo...
here's a happy crew: 2 of my favorite math professors ever, and the ever quotable steve klee ;-)
...and of course the requisite rock-kicking picture
after valpo, it was time to head one state over to meet up with alliswan for lunch... when the two of us meet up, ihop is the restaurant of choice, so there you have it:
it was a short visit, but a fun one -- we both got to laugh a bit :-)
finally, i got safely back to NJ, and after helping me get my suitcase upstairs, scott decided to see if he would fit in it... so there you have it...
...scott in a suitcase... oi.
more photos available from the past month at the usual spot
enjoy!
left memphis friday morning, early enough to get to st. louis for lunchtime with dave beagley -- here we are:
we had lunch at fitz's, a rootbeer bottling company, however even though we were seated right next to the rootbeer making part of the building (they have glass walls so you can watch them work), they were mostly off on *their* lunch break while we ate. it was still a very cool place... :-)
from there, it was northward bound to my grandma p.'s place in NE illinois.
that would obviously be my grandma and me... and if you're smart you'll know that it was taken sunday around lunchtime, because sunday morning is just about the only time you might *possibly* find me in a skirt :-P
here's an awesome sunset, taken from my grandma's yard on sunday night before i left.
monday morning, i was eastward bound, with my first step being good old valpo...
here's a happy crew: 2 of my favorite math professors ever, and the ever quotable steve klee ;-)
...and of course the requisite rock-kicking picture
after valpo, it was time to head one state over to meet up with alliswan for lunch... when the two of us meet up, ihop is the restaurant of choice, so there you have it:
it was a short visit, but a fun one -- we both got to laugh a bit :-)
finally, i got safely back to NJ, and after helping me get my suitcase upstairs, scott decided to see if he would fit in it... so there you have it...
...scott in a suitcase... oi.
more photos available from the past month at the usual spot
enjoy!
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
back in jersey
more about the drive home when all the pictures are on my computer to illustrate :-P
in the meantime... random email in my inbox when i returned today:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 12:03:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: greenfie
To: lpudwell
Subject: Summer teaching?
How come there is no lpudwell teaching this summer at Rutgers?
I can meet incredible women on the web, with unsolicited e-mail
providing my imagination with more than sufficient ....
There is chilly rain in New Brunswick.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
sometimes i really wonder what is going through people's heads when they're writing....
doht
later dudes
in the meantime... random email in my inbox when i returned today:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 12:03:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: greenfie
To: lpudwell
Subject: Summer teaching?
How come there is no lpudwell teaching this summer at Rutgers?
I can meet incredible women on the web, with unsolicited e-mail
providing my imagination with more than sufficient ....
There is chilly rain in New Brunswick.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
sometimes i really wonder what is going through people's heads when they're writing....
doht
later dudes
Friday, May 20, 2005
finales all around :-P
first off apprentice: not much to do this episode other than make an excuse to get people to pay to spend an hour in live suspense, but all ended as it should. tana got picked on for appropriate things but she was feisty in response... i had to laugh that trump's main qualm with kendra was that she cried after finishing her final task... her response of "mr. trump, i've seen super bowl players cry when holding up their trophy -- crying is NOT a sign of weakness" was excellent :-)... kendra has a heart, and that's a GOOD thing. something would have been fundamentally wrong with the universe if tana had won after kendra's final performance. so yay -- i picked the winner week 1, and it turned out to be good :-)
second: star wars, episode 3... for all the reviews i've seen and heard EVERYWHERE in the past 24 hours, it took me a bit to get into it. even though i've only seen the other 5 films twice each, eric's "discussed at me" enough about what he expected to take place (and much was obvious) that i found it predictable for awhile and an excuse to use a plethora of special effects... however, i got more into it for the last hour/half hour, and left satisfied with seeing it tonight instead of sleeping. :-P it's good, it does answer questions well left between episodes 2 and 4, and it was on the whole enjoyable, so yay for that too.
now, to sleep -- woohoo.
by the way... so it's been a good time here in memphis, but tomorrow finds me out on the road.
the plan?
tomorrow: lunch in st. louis with dave beagley, to grandma p's house by night
sat and sunday: at g-ma pudwell's
monday: to pittsburgh via valpo to see gillman and steve klee, and via bowling green, ohio to have a late lunch/early dinner with alliswan
tuesday: back to jersey
that's fun, right?
catch all y'all on the flip side, unless you're dave, steve, or alliswan, in which case i'll see you along the way ;-)
night y'all!
second: star wars, episode 3... for all the reviews i've seen and heard EVERYWHERE in the past 24 hours, it took me a bit to get into it. even though i've only seen the other 5 films twice each, eric's "discussed at me" enough about what he expected to take place (and much was obvious) that i found it predictable for awhile and an excuse to use a plethora of special effects... however, i got more into it for the last hour/half hour, and left satisfied with seeing it tonight instead of sleeping. :-P it's good, it does answer questions well left between episodes 2 and 4, and it was on the whole enjoyable, so yay for that too.
now, to sleep -- woohoo.
by the way... so it's been a good time here in memphis, but tomorrow finds me out on the road.
the plan?
tomorrow: lunch in st. louis with dave beagley, to grandma p's house by night
sat and sunday: at g-ma pudwell's
monday: to pittsburgh via valpo to see gillman and steve klee, and via bowling green, ohio to have a late lunch/early dinner with alliswan
tuesday: back to jersey
that's fun, right?
catch all y'all on the flip side, unless you're dave, steve, or alliswan, in which case i'll see you along the way ;-)
night y'all!
Thursday, May 19, 2005
odds and ends
last day in memphis for a bit
apparently greenfield and my mom have had a jolly little email dialogue going on for the past day and a half... his first response to her was something along the lines of "dear mrs. p., you can call me s." (she addressed her email to him with "dear s. greenfield" instead of dr. g. or anything of the sort)... they're crazy.
accomplishments/happenings of the past couple days?
* washed my car -- not perfectly but i got most of the bugs from middle TN interstate off the front of the car, got most of the mud off from the driveway here at the house, and it's generally sparklier than before
* found my european hairdryer and voltage converters for the month i'm in prague/budapest later in the summer... these are good things to have before going abroad again :-P
* burgers and movie night with the college age bible study from my church here... liz and brian found out yesterday they're having a boy, so yay for them... we watched "last flight out", which was good for what it was, and decent for a church group movie.
* got the most comfortable pair of PJs ever last night while out shopping with the brother :-) (the old ones are better for cold weather and are starting to be a bit big on me)
* mom randomly called this afternoon and suggested she take me out to dixie cafe for lunch, which was nice... especially as she has a school board meeting tonight and won't be around to visit really
*mom agreed to buy me laszlo lovasz's combinatorial problems and exercises, a $200 math book that's out of print that i want, for my birthday next month. it's my only gift this year since it costs so much, but i contributed my barnes and noble discount to sweeten the bargaining deal and convince mom it was a good idea... reviews i've seen online are fantastic and steve klee says it's well worth that amount of money (he has copies of it from a class he took in budapest), so i'll be excited to get it. -- getting this book and getting 15% off on it means i already have gotten my membership fee back in full for the year and it was worth getting :-)
* otherwise, washing clothes and packing... not much to bring back north with me like on previous trips... other than old HS and CC books, there's not much left in my room anymore! mom gave me a bunch of nice candles and a huge glass vase that i need to figure out out to wrap without breaking. :-)
* the plan for the night?
(1) finish reading the story of mathematics and pack my car other than stuff i need tonight/in the morning
(2) dinner
(3) see the apprentice finale and hopefully see kendra win
(4) brother and i have 9:15pm tickets to star wars episode 3... on a MEGA-screen instead of a regular one :-) this should be fun... and then i don't have to worry about accidentally hearing about it from people before i get a chance to see it for myself in jersey otherwise. :-P
(5) movie will get done a little before midnight, so then crash, b/c i need to be up around 6am tomorrow, out the door by 7:30am to get to st. louis and chicago respectively when i've promised for tomorrow.
never fear though -- apprentice and star wars reviews to come later tonight. apprentice review will either be rejoicing that the person i've liked from the start finally got the job she's deserved all season, or ranting that such a fake person got it unfairly... we shall see :-P... re: star wars i promise not to give plot away when i write :-)
at any rate, mostly minding my own business lately, but anywho it's been a quality trip back, and i've enjoyed it... tv/movie reviews later... happy thursday all :-)
apparently greenfield and my mom have had a jolly little email dialogue going on for the past day and a half... his first response to her was something along the lines of "dear mrs. p., you can call me s." (she addressed her email to him with "dear s. greenfield" instead of dr. g. or anything of the sort)... they're crazy.
accomplishments/happenings of the past couple days?
* washed my car -- not perfectly but i got most of the bugs from middle TN interstate off the front of the car, got most of the mud off from the driveway here at the house, and it's generally sparklier than before
* found my european hairdryer and voltage converters for the month i'm in prague/budapest later in the summer... these are good things to have before going abroad again :-P
* burgers and movie night with the college age bible study from my church here... liz and brian found out yesterday they're having a boy, so yay for them... we watched "last flight out", which was good for what it was, and decent for a church group movie.
* got the most comfortable pair of PJs ever last night while out shopping with the brother :-) (the old ones are better for cold weather and are starting to be a bit big on me)
* mom randomly called this afternoon and suggested she take me out to dixie cafe for lunch, which was nice... especially as she has a school board meeting tonight and won't be around to visit really
*mom agreed to buy me laszlo lovasz's combinatorial problems and exercises, a $200 math book that's out of print that i want, for my birthday next month. it's my only gift this year since it costs so much, but i contributed my barnes and noble discount to sweeten the bargaining deal and convince mom it was a good idea... reviews i've seen online are fantastic and steve klee says it's well worth that amount of money (he has copies of it from a class he took in budapest), so i'll be excited to get it. -- getting this book and getting 15% off on it means i already have gotten my membership fee back in full for the year and it was worth getting :-)
* otherwise, washing clothes and packing... not much to bring back north with me like on previous trips... other than old HS and CC books, there's not much left in my room anymore! mom gave me a bunch of nice candles and a huge glass vase that i need to figure out out to wrap without breaking. :-)
* the plan for the night?
(1) finish reading the story of mathematics and pack my car other than stuff i need tonight/in the morning
(2) dinner
(3) see the apprentice finale and hopefully see kendra win
(4) brother and i have 9:15pm tickets to star wars episode 3... on a MEGA-screen instead of a regular one :-) this should be fun... and then i don't have to worry about accidentally hearing about it from people before i get a chance to see it for myself in jersey otherwise. :-P
(5) movie will get done a little before midnight, so then crash, b/c i need to be up around 6am tomorrow, out the door by 7:30am to get to st. louis and chicago respectively when i've promised for tomorrow.
never fear though -- apprentice and star wars reviews to come later tonight. apprentice review will either be rejoicing that the person i've liked from the start finally got the job she's deserved all season, or ranting that such a fake person got it unfairly... we shall see :-P... re: star wars i promise not to give plot away when i write :-)
at any rate, mostly minding my own business lately, but anywho it's been a quality trip back, and i've enjoyed it... tv/movie reviews later... happy thursday all :-)
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
a tale of two emails
you will appreciate this most if you (a) know Dr. Greenfield, and (b) have been in his office and seen his "do not annoy, badger,..... the animals" sign behind his desk.
if you don't fit into either category, you'll probably laugh anyhow... enjoy:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email 1:
Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 20:54:09 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: thought you might appreciate this...
From: lpudwell
To: greenfie
Dr. Greenfield,
Greetings from the far-off land of Memphis, Tennessee.
I was at the zoo today with my mother, when I came across the attached
sign. Of course it immediately reminded me of a similar sign in the
office of my favorite analysis professor. I can't remember though -- did
your sign say not to xerox the animals too?
If this sign does in fact have new verbs, I thought you'd get a laugh out
of it, so it was worth sharing.
If not, then at least you got a random email from the distant and strange
land of the American Mid-South. ;-)
Happy Tuesday.
(note: image is "clickable" to see a larger version)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email 2:
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 09:01:31 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: thought you might appreciate this...
From: greenfie
To: lpudwell
Dear Ms. Pudwell:
Beloved Dr. Greenfield is recuperating from the sheer shock of receiving
e-mail from the "mid-south", a land so peculiar than brides-to-be flee in
despair to Reno (or was it Las Vegas?).
What a S*P*L*E*N*D*I*D sign! Thank you very much. The sign has much more
than the one in my office (from the San Diego Zoo). Please send your
mother back to the zoo to get a duplicate of the sign. I presume you are
too busy having fun, and that she, like the other old folks, has little to
do except to entertain the children.
I spent a large part of yesterday pulling out lysimachia.
New Jersey is actually pretty right now. Return soon and safely, and thank
you very much for remembering me!
Happy Wednesday back at you!
S. Greenfield
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
correction as of 12:30pm central time:
this is now a tale of THREE emails... i forwarded greenfield's email to mom for fun, not expecting her to do anything but read... instead she responds to HIM with:
Dear S. Greenfield,
We are so pleased that we could find a sign that you would appreciate. However, I must take exception to your comment about "old" people. As an elementary school principal with 8 days of school left this year, I am overwhelmed with busy-ness. So, maybe Lara will find the time to pick up the sign???
Mrs. Pudwell
oi... we shall see what happens :-P
if you don't fit into either category, you'll probably laugh anyhow... enjoy:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email 1:
Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 20:54:09 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: thought you might appreciate this...
From: lpudwell
To: greenfie
Dr. Greenfield,
Greetings from the far-off land of Memphis, Tennessee.
I was at the zoo today with my mother, when I came across the attached
sign. Of course it immediately reminded me of a similar sign in the
office of my favorite analysis professor. I can't remember though -- did
your sign say not to xerox the animals too?
If this sign does in fact have new verbs, I thought you'd get a laugh out
of it, so it was worth sharing.
If not, then at least you got a random email from the distant and strange
land of the American Mid-South. ;-)
Happy Tuesday.
(note: image is "clickable" to see a larger version)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email 2:
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 09:01:31 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: thought you might appreciate this...
From: greenfie
To: lpudwell
Dear Ms. Pudwell:
Beloved Dr. Greenfield is recuperating from the sheer shock of receiving
e-mail from the "mid-south", a land so peculiar than brides-to-be flee in
despair to Reno (or was it Las Vegas?).
What a S*P*L*E*N*D*I*D sign! Thank you very much. The sign has much more
than the one in my office (from the San Diego Zoo). Please send your
mother back to the zoo to get a duplicate of the sign. I presume you are
too busy having fun, and that she, like the other old folks, has little to
do except to entertain the children.
I spent a large part of yesterday pulling out lysimachia.
New Jersey is actually pretty right now. Return soon and safely, and thank
you very much for remembering me!
Happy Wednesday back at you!
S. Greenfield
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
correction as of 12:30pm central time:
this is now a tale of THREE emails... i forwarded greenfield's email to mom for fun, not expecting her to do anything but read... instead she responds to HIM with:
Dear S. Greenfield,
We are so pleased that we could find a sign that you would appreciate. However, I must take exception to your comment about "old" people. As an elementary school principal with 8 days of school left this year, I am overwhelmed with busy-ness. So, maybe Lara will find the time to pick up the sign???
Mrs. Pudwell
oi... we shall see what happens :-P
ow...
i somehow managed to chip my tooth on a fork when we all went out to eat tonight... you can't tell unless you look close, and then there's the indentation of a fork tine in it and it feels rough...
i don't know how i managed to do these things, but yuck... :-/
i don't know how i managed to do these things, but yuck... :-/
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
fun o the day
(pictures forthcoming when i'm in jersey with a better internet connection, i took at least 150 pics today :-P)
today was a fun day going around town to places i hadn't been in a bit.
i met dad at noon at the botanic garden, and he showed me around briefly before taking me out to lunch. we went to patrick's (a random plate lunch restaurant (southern equivalent of a diner?) on park, that used to be near the colonial post office) -- it was good... i had a stuffed pepper with pickled green tomatoes and yams for lunch :-)
after dad toting me around the offices and introducing me to all the botanic garden higher ups that i didn't already know, i wandered around the gardens for an hour and a half taking pictures... the iris garden was nice, but a week or two past its prime; the rose garden was the most amazing i'd ever seen it (and note that i spend almost every afternoon of my sophomore year of high school wandering around the gardens waiting for dad to get off work and take me home), so tons of pictures of roses... high of only 80 today, so it was a gorgeous day to be out and about.
after 15 minutes at home to recharge my camera and refill my water bottle, i met mom at her school at 3:30 and drug her off to the zoo... first i ran into alice (my kindergarten teacher's daughter... she was my favorite daycare teacher when i was little), mrs. k. (my 5th grade teacher), several of the other teachers there who either i had for my own teachers, or know well anyhow, and ashley -- ashley was in 2nd grade my senior year of HS... her mom died when she was 4 and she kinda latched on to me for a couple years while i worked daycare as a female role model of sorts... (e.g. for 1st and 2nd grade, when her class made "happy mother's day" cards for art class, and her teachers would tell her she could make a special card for whoever she wanted, she made me "happy mother's day" cards instead :-) ) she wrote me for a bit after i moved to college too... i hadn't seen her since at least partway through valpo, and she's now finishing up 8th grade! that was a blast from the past and it was really good to see her doing so well :-)
anyhow, mom and i made it to the zoo around 4, and had until 6 to wander around... we saw probably 75-80% of the place in that two hours... a lot of the plants have overgrown their areas but the animals looked good. there were several families that just weren't controlling their kids, so loud rude kids plowing through things, scaring animals, and knocking into people got on my nerves, but when we managed to be near families where the kids weren't being crazy, it was a nice day to be there :-P hard to believe it's been 8 years since i've worked there! (my first job was helping with zoocamp at the zoo the summers before 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th grade (i guess that's 94, 95, 96, 97).
after the zoo, i'm back home putting pictures from my camera on the family computer where my family can see them :-P... brother's "girl friend" (purposely 2 words for now) tina stopped by the house half an hour ago... mom's at a meeting, but it was the first time dad or i had met her... she seems really nice, and it was good to put a face with her name finally :-P... i'd talked w/ her on the phone once before... i think so far she does have sister approval :-P
pictures posted in a week :-P
happy tuesday?
today was a fun day going around town to places i hadn't been in a bit.
i met dad at noon at the botanic garden, and he showed me around briefly before taking me out to lunch. we went to patrick's (a random plate lunch restaurant (southern equivalent of a diner?) on park, that used to be near the colonial post office) -- it was good... i had a stuffed pepper with pickled green tomatoes and yams for lunch :-)
after dad toting me around the offices and introducing me to all the botanic garden higher ups that i didn't already know, i wandered around the gardens for an hour and a half taking pictures... the iris garden was nice, but a week or two past its prime; the rose garden was the most amazing i'd ever seen it (and note that i spend almost every afternoon of my sophomore year of high school wandering around the gardens waiting for dad to get off work and take me home), so tons of pictures of roses... high of only 80 today, so it was a gorgeous day to be out and about.
after 15 minutes at home to recharge my camera and refill my water bottle, i met mom at her school at 3:30 and drug her off to the zoo... first i ran into alice (my kindergarten teacher's daughter... she was my favorite daycare teacher when i was little), mrs. k. (my 5th grade teacher), several of the other teachers there who either i had for my own teachers, or know well anyhow, and ashley -- ashley was in 2nd grade my senior year of HS... her mom died when she was 4 and she kinda latched on to me for a couple years while i worked daycare as a female role model of sorts... (e.g. for 1st and 2nd grade, when her class made "happy mother's day" cards for art class, and her teachers would tell her she could make a special card for whoever she wanted, she made me "happy mother's day" cards instead :-) ) she wrote me for a bit after i moved to college too... i hadn't seen her since at least partway through valpo, and she's now finishing up 8th grade! that was a blast from the past and it was really good to see her doing so well :-)
anyhow, mom and i made it to the zoo around 4, and had until 6 to wander around... we saw probably 75-80% of the place in that two hours... a lot of the plants have overgrown their areas but the animals looked good. there were several families that just weren't controlling their kids, so loud rude kids plowing through things, scaring animals, and knocking into people got on my nerves, but when we managed to be near families where the kids weren't being crazy, it was a nice day to be there :-P hard to believe it's been 8 years since i've worked there! (my first job was helping with zoocamp at the zoo the summers before 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th grade (i guess that's 94, 95, 96, 97).
after the zoo, i'm back home putting pictures from my camera on the family computer where my family can see them :-P... brother's "girl friend" (purposely 2 words for now) tina stopped by the house half an hour ago... mom's at a meeting, but it was the first time dad or i had met her... she seems really nice, and it was good to put a face with her name finally :-P... i'd talked w/ her on the phone once before... i think so far she does have sister approval :-P
pictures posted in a week :-P
happy tuesday?
what a crazy world :-P
this story amazed me this morning: British hospital seeks ID for mystery piano player
quote of the morning so far... as MSNBC reported that a plane was diverted this morning to bangor, maine... i think they said it was an al italia flight and it was just supposed to be from one spot in europe to another... referencing a french flight that was diverted to maine within the past two weeks for the same reason (someone on the american "no-fly list" was suspected to be aboard), a commentator remarked, "the thing is, we have not developed a 'no-fly list', we've developed a 'visit maine program' -- does this make any sense?"
i laughed.
now to get ready and get myself outta here.
later dudes :-P
quote of the morning so far... as MSNBC reported that a plane was diverted this morning to bangor, maine... i think they said it was an al italia flight and it was just supposed to be from one spot in europe to another... referencing a french flight that was diverted to maine within the past two weeks for the same reason (someone on the american "no-fly list" was suspected to be aboard), a commentator remarked, "the thing is, we have not developed a 'no-fly list', we've developed a 'visit maine program' -- does this make any sense?"
i laughed.
now to get ready and get myself outta here.
later dudes :-P
Monday, May 16, 2005
scrubs fun
"which scrubs character are you?" quiz
my result :-P
season 1 dvd comes out tomorrow, and i already preordered from amazon... it should be at my place in jersey when i get there.
here's something that worries me though:
NBC's released their fall preview schedule and scrubs doesn't have a spot... a new show is taking its place for the start of the season...
according to this article scrubs is renewed for the 2005-2006 season, but on hiatus so it'll start later in the fall... that makes me sad since i think it's the best show of all... so it goes... joey, office, and apprentice will still be around to entertain me... just my favorite show won't be at first.
oi.. at least i'll have season one on DVD in a week :-)
later dudes
my result :-P
season 1 dvd comes out tomorrow, and i already preordered from amazon... it should be at my place in jersey when i get there.
here's something that worries me though:
NBC's released their fall preview schedule and scrubs doesn't have a spot... a new show is taking its place for the start of the season...
according to this article scrubs is renewed for the 2005-2006 season, but on hiatus so it'll start later in the fall... that makes me sad since i think it's the best show of all... so it goes... joey, office, and apprentice will still be around to entertain me... just my favorite show won't be at first.
oi.. at least i'll have season one on DVD in a week :-)
later dudes
happy monday :-P
here's the fun of the day
* brother was home today, but slept until 3pm... apparently he didn't get home from the bar with his friends until 3am last night... oops!
*put together my present for g-ma p.'s 80th birthday (which is next month, but i'm spending this weekend with her) -- i bought this frame from hallmark, and then put a picture from mother's day 1988 of me, my mom, and her (even though she's dad's mom), and a picture of me, her boyfriend bob, and her from my valpo graduation 2 years ago in it, both rescaled so they sit side by side in the frame perfectly... mom and dad approved.
*took my car through memphis vehicle inspection... most riviting hour of my year as always... to reduce counts on the emissions test, the rumor is that you shouldn't run your air conditioning while waiting in line for the test, so luckily it was a nice day to just sit in line in my car with the windows open... i made it all the way through the "garden state" soundtrack and partway through the "hitchhikers guide to the galaxy one" while waiting, just to have someone test my brakes, my lights, my windshield wipers, my mirrors, and my emissions levels in under 5 minutes... that's done for another year now though at least.
*went hunting in the attic and found some of my old kids books (not by any means all of them) to bring back for scott to read with me :-)
*had brother show me the animals out back, and got some good pictures, but i was too lazy to go upstairs and get the usb cord, so you'll have to wait to see those :-P
*checked my grades for the semester... 3 of them were expected to be As, one was questionable since it comes from my combinatorics prof who is a tough prof, and i know i know considerably less than my classmates... apparently he decided to give all As this term though, because i got an A, and knowing all the guys, i know none of them would have gotten a lower grade than me... having got a flat B in graph theory from him and a B+ in combo 1, it was nice to see the A in combo 2 even if i woulda probably given me another B/B+ by last semester's standards... woohoo... regardless of how it came about, this makes me happy :-)
and that's what i know... tomorrow's adventures include the botanic garden AND the zoo, both for free ;-P, one because i have connections and one because tuesday is free day :-P... should be fun.
later dudes :-P
* brother was home today, but slept until 3pm... apparently he didn't get home from the bar with his friends until 3am last night... oops!
*put together my present for g-ma p.'s 80th birthday (which is next month, but i'm spending this weekend with her) -- i bought this frame from hallmark, and then put a picture from mother's day 1988 of me, my mom, and her (even though she's dad's mom), and a picture of me, her boyfriend bob, and her from my valpo graduation 2 years ago in it, both rescaled so they sit side by side in the frame perfectly... mom and dad approved.
*took my car through memphis vehicle inspection... most riviting hour of my year as always... to reduce counts on the emissions test, the rumor is that you shouldn't run your air conditioning while waiting in line for the test, so luckily it was a nice day to just sit in line in my car with the windows open... i made it all the way through the "garden state" soundtrack and partway through the "hitchhikers guide to the galaxy one" while waiting, just to have someone test my brakes, my lights, my windshield wipers, my mirrors, and my emissions levels in under 5 minutes... that's done for another year now though at least.
*went hunting in the attic and found some of my old kids books (not by any means all of them) to bring back for scott to read with me :-)
*had brother show me the animals out back, and got some good pictures, but i was too lazy to go upstairs and get the usb cord, so you'll have to wait to see those :-P
*checked my grades for the semester... 3 of them were expected to be As, one was questionable since it comes from my combinatorics prof who is a tough prof, and i know i know considerably less than my classmates... apparently he decided to give all As this term though, because i got an A, and knowing all the guys, i know none of them would have gotten a lower grade than me... having got a flat B in graph theory from him and a B+ in combo 1, it was nice to see the A in combo 2 even if i woulda probably given me another B/B+ by last semester's standards... woohoo... regardless of how it came about, this makes me happy :-)
and that's what i know... tomorrow's adventures include the botanic garden AND the zoo, both for free ;-P, one because i have connections and one because tuesday is free day :-P... should be fun.
later dudes :-P
this makes me sad
because after you've sparked international riots that have killed people you can just apologize and make it better?
i don't think so.
someone is to blame here and an apology doesn't take back all the violence that occured in response.
(in case you've been oblivious to news this week, newsweek reported that american questioners at guantanamo bay in cuba mistreated to koran and even flushed one down a toilet. rightfully so, this outraged muslims worldwide, and sadly started riots/protests globally in which a number of people were killed. now, newsweek reports that although it was a reliable source they got the info from before, there's questions about how accurate their source's report was before and the incident may or may not have happened. hello, OBVIOUSLY printing such things in newsweek of all places is going to cause an international stir... shouldn't they check the credibility before mass publishing news that ended up indirectly killing people?!?!?!...
whether you're muslim or not, it's impossible to not know that the islamic faith regards the koran to be a holy book, and whether you view it as such or not, it's utterly stupid, ignorant, and wretched to deface something that millions of people hold in high reverence. if this story really happened, then there are some american soldiers who completely dishonored themselves and their country. if it didn't happen, there's some mighty irresponsible people in newsweek or in their source material.
either way, people make me sad.)
i don't think so.
someone is to blame here and an apology doesn't take back all the violence that occured in response.
(in case you've been oblivious to news this week, newsweek reported that american questioners at guantanamo bay in cuba mistreated to koran and even flushed one down a toilet. rightfully so, this outraged muslims worldwide, and sadly started riots/protests globally in which a number of people were killed. now, newsweek reports that although it was a reliable source they got the info from before, there's questions about how accurate their source's report was before and the incident may or may not have happened. hello, OBVIOUSLY printing such things in newsweek of all places is going to cause an international stir... shouldn't they check the credibility before mass publishing news that ended up indirectly killing people?!?!?!...
whether you're muslim or not, it's impossible to not know that the islamic faith regards the koran to be a holy book, and whether you view it as such or not, it's utterly stupid, ignorant, and wretched to deface something that millions of people hold in high reverence. if this story really happened, then there are some american soldiers who completely dishonored themselves and their country. if it didn't happen, there's some mighty irresponsible people in newsweek or in their source material.
either way, people make me sad.)
Sunday, May 15, 2005
update :-P
welcome to your play by play of lara's life :-P
so the deal with brother was this -- he swerved to miss a box turtle while going around a curve, and then overcompensated coming back and went off a steep shoulder... from the way he tells it though, it sounded like something in the steering went because the vehicle didn't react at all how he expected (and he's been driving it close to 3 years)....
anyhow, his car rolled off sideways and flipped, but in the process of rolling a time or two, the front tip hit the ground and made the car bounce front to back as well... he ended up upside down facing the opposite direction he had been going... luckily he doesn't have airbags (or he would've gotten majorly bruised) and luckily he had his seat belt on. he had a dodge ram charger, which looks like a truck, but with a camper attached, only there's no "cab", it's just one large vehicle... his side windows on the "camper part" completely busted, so after he unbuckled and got himself right side up again, he crawled out a broken window and cut his right elbow a little, but not bad.
apparently people saw it happen and called 911 right off, and the county first response people were there within 2 minutes. the ambulance people were amazed to see him standing and asked if he hurt anywhere, and he commented "look at my elbow, that's the extent of it... frankly i've done worse trippin over my own two feet"
apparently the brakcets the hold the engine into the frame broke, so it was beyond repair, and he could either tow it locally for cheap or tow it 3 hours to memphis for $1000... if he was gonna have to sell it to a salvage yard anyhow, he opted for the first one, so goodbye to brother's first vehicle.
a truck of scouts coming from the campsite brother had been at last night were about 15 minutes behind him, so before he even called, they had stopped (having recognized brother's truck) and helped him take out all his personal stuff and gave him a ride back home.
so thankfully he made it out with only minor injury and is just fine... unfortunately his vehicle wasn't, and he still has a few thousand to pay off on it even though he doesn't own it anymore!
....
in other news, the family went to lunch at the cupboard (quality southern restaurant closer to downtown than we usually eat) and then saw the art of the motorcycle this afternoon... dad raced through and was worried "that all you were sitting in the car mad at me" so he came back through in search of us to ask why we were taking so long (mom, ryan, and me actually read all the signs and displays as we went!)... after he made it through again, my dad filled out 2 angry comment cards that "i hate motorcycles, they're noisy, this wasn't worth my money because it was a bad choice of display"... my dad is RIDICULOUS somtimes.
even if my dad hates motorcycles, it was a very well done display. it travelled chronologically where each room corresponded to a different decade of the past 100 years, with a big display telling about the primary concerns in transportation of that decade, and then each bike was mounted on a platform with a paragraph or two written about it, and selected ones had audio commentary to go with (each person gets a hand held digital audio player to carry around with you and punch in display numbers). they had a couple bikes that were famous from various movies and a couple that belonged to elvis, borrowed from graceland :-P... they were all pretty gorgeous :-), and it was just cool to see how design changed over time both for practicality and for the demands of the particular era.... unlike my dad, i thought it was a very worthwhile exhibit.
anyhow, that's the scoop of the day... my brother was extremely fortunate it make it out of this morning in one piece, and i saw a lot of pretty motorcycles. :-)
now, dinner.
later dudes :-P
so the deal with brother was this -- he swerved to miss a box turtle while going around a curve, and then overcompensated coming back and went off a steep shoulder... from the way he tells it though, it sounded like something in the steering went because the vehicle didn't react at all how he expected (and he's been driving it close to 3 years)....
anyhow, his car rolled off sideways and flipped, but in the process of rolling a time or two, the front tip hit the ground and made the car bounce front to back as well... he ended up upside down facing the opposite direction he had been going... luckily he doesn't have airbags (or he would've gotten majorly bruised) and luckily he had his seat belt on. he had a dodge ram charger, which looks like a truck, but with a camper attached, only there's no "cab", it's just one large vehicle... his side windows on the "camper part" completely busted, so after he unbuckled and got himself right side up again, he crawled out a broken window and cut his right elbow a little, but not bad.
apparently people saw it happen and called 911 right off, and the county first response people were there within 2 minutes. the ambulance people were amazed to see him standing and asked if he hurt anywhere, and he commented "look at my elbow, that's the extent of it... frankly i've done worse trippin over my own two feet"
apparently the brakcets the hold the engine into the frame broke, so it was beyond repair, and he could either tow it locally for cheap or tow it 3 hours to memphis for $1000... if he was gonna have to sell it to a salvage yard anyhow, he opted for the first one, so goodbye to brother's first vehicle.
a truck of scouts coming from the campsite brother had been at last night were about 15 minutes behind him, so before he even called, they had stopped (having recognized brother's truck) and helped him take out all his personal stuff and gave him a ride back home.
so thankfully he made it out with only minor injury and is just fine... unfortunately his vehicle wasn't, and he still has a few thousand to pay off on it even though he doesn't own it anymore!
....
in other news, the family went to lunch at the cupboard (quality southern restaurant closer to downtown than we usually eat) and then saw the art of the motorcycle this afternoon... dad raced through and was worried "that all you were sitting in the car mad at me" so he came back through in search of us to ask why we were taking so long (mom, ryan, and me actually read all the signs and displays as we went!)... after he made it through again, my dad filled out 2 angry comment cards that "i hate motorcycles, they're noisy, this wasn't worth my money because it was a bad choice of display"... my dad is RIDICULOUS somtimes.
even if my dad hates motorcycles, it was a very well done display. it travelled chronologically where each room corresponded to a different decade of the past 100 years, with a big display telling about the primary concerns in transportation of that decade, and then each bike was mounted on a platform with a paragraph or two written about it, and selected ones had audio commentary to go with (each person gets a hand held digital audio player to carry around with you and punch in display numbers). they had a couple bikes that were famous from various movies and a couple that belonged to elvis, borrowed from graceland :-P... they were all pretty gorgeous :-), and it was just cool to see how design changed over time both for practicality and for the demands of the particular era.... unlike my dad, i thought it was a very worthwhile exhibit.
anyhow, that's the scoop of the day... my brother was extremely fortunate it make it out of this morning in one piece, and i saw a lot of pretty motorcycles. :-)
now, dinner.
later dudes :-P
oi...
so my brother was in arkansas last night for a boy scout campout. my plan this morning was to go to 8:30am church with dad and then home for breakfast, then 11am church on my own (maximize the number of church people i see while i'm in town, etc.)
anyhow, a llama threw up on dad this morning so he decided he didn't have time to get ready, so he stayed home... probably actually a good thing. when 8:30 church got done at 9:30 mom and i each had several messages on our cellphones....
apparently, while driving back home from the camp out, my brother tried to miss some debris on the interstate and instead rolled his truck over several times, landing upside down in a ditch with all the glass broke out. his truck is so old that it's not insured (he just has liability insurance), and he claimed that there were police there to help him, that he would get another of his boy scout friends to pick him up so that we didn't have to, and that his truck is totalled beyond repair so he doesn't even care about calling insurance (mom insisted he at least needed to call and get it towed somewhere)... he claims (most importantly) that he's fine other than a couple cuts on his elbow... we shall see.
right now he's at least an hour and a half out in arkansas taking care of things himself. he tried to call me during church but my phone was off, so he got dad instead (i just have a voicemail of heavy breathing and moving around, i assume from right after it happened)... dad, being dad, had like a panic attack and i came home between the two church services more for his benefit to talk and calm down than anything else.
so yeah... it's an eventful morning... i'm just glad my brother is still alive...
later dudes.
anyhow, a llama threw up on dad this morning so he decided he didn't have time to get ready, so he stayed home... probably actually a good thing. when 8:30 church got done at 9:30 mom and i each had several messages on our cellphones....
apparently, while driving back home from the camp out, my brother tried to miss some debris on the interstate and instead rolled his truck over several times, landing upside down in a ditch with all the glass broke out. his truck is so old that it's not insured (he just has liability insurance), and he claimed that there were police there to help him, that he would get another of his boy scout friends to pick him up so that we didn't have to, and that his truck is totalled beyond repair so he doesn't even care about calling insurance (mom insisted he at least needed to call and get it towed somewhere)... he claims (most importantly) that he's fine other than a couple cuts on his elbow... we shall see.
right now he's at least an hour and a half out in arkansas taking care of things himself. he tried to call me during church but my phone was off, so he got dad instead (i just have a voicemail of heavy breathing and moving around, i assume from right after it happened)... dad, being dad, had like a panic attack and i came home between the two church services more for his benefit to talk and calm down than anything else.
so yeah... it's an eventful morning... i'm just glad my brother is still alive...
later dudes.
random
i'm having lunch here on friday and you're (probably) not. :-)
considering that of the people i know in saint louis and its surroundings there's only one i talk to reasonably regularly, you can deduce who had the brilliant idea of introducing lara to a root beer bottling compnay/restaurant all in one.
party indeed.
now, really, to sleep :-)
considering that of the people i know in saint louis and its surroundings there's only one i talk to reasonably regularly, you can deduce who had the brilliant idea of introducing lara to a root beer bottling compnay/restaurant all in one.
party indeed.
now, really, to sleep :-)
Saturday, May 14, 2005
another field trip :-P
earlier this week, mom and i headed east... today, i convinced her to hop in the car and headed north... we were within miles of kentucky actually, but to take interstate to get there, we went through slivers of arkansas and missouri too... to tiptonville, TN:
that's where reelfoot lake is.
reelfoot is within miles of the mississippi river in the northwest corner of tennessee. back in th early 1800s it was swampland with a lot of cypress trees... then in 1811-1812, there was a series of major major earthquakes that screwed up the land making valleys and hills that weren't there before, and it caused the mississippi to form an undercurrent and back up to fill in reelfoot with anywhere from 5-18 feet of water... it's 15 miles across, and is a giant lake known for its cypress forests, and for being the nations best natural fish hatchery. there are fish in reelfoot native to anywhere from yellowstone to appalachia i think, just on account of it originally forming from river water from the mississippi.
anyhow, i'd never been there, and mom had never been there, and it was a nice day, so i convinced her to get in the car and go with me. we got there just enough before their last pontoon boat cruise, that mom suddenly decided it was a good idea and bought us tickets. mostly the tour guide steered the boat and accepted random questions, and pointed out wildlife as it appeared for an hour and a half. it was a nice day for it. at one point, the boat startled a large carp, and it jumped over a corner of the boat, startling all of US, as it was nearly 2 feet long!
otherwise, we just enjoyed the scenery and the birds, fish, turtles, and water snakes that you could see.
after the pontoon boat, mom and i went to sonic for lunch (her idea), and then back to the lake to walk around the cypress boardwalk... there was a hiking trail for a mile and a half along the lakeshore but mom wasn't game for that -- she just wanted to see what was on the north end of the lake... there, we found an inn, and a nature trail, which i convinced her to try out for a bit... it wandered around the edge of swampland on the fringe of the lake, and we went for about 15 minutes into the woods before mom wanted to turn around... 15 minutes later we were back in the car headed south again... back through missouri and arkansas, and we crossed the river back into downtown memphis at sunset, so the downtown buildings glowing reflecting the sun were gorgeous as we came across.
now, here we are back at home, tired out... it was a beautiful day for being outside :-)
tomorrow's adventure? the art of the motorcycle with the family after church... aren't you jealous? ;-)
night y'all
that's where reelfoot lake is.
reelfoot is within miles of the mississippi river in the northwest corner of tennessee. back in th early 1800s it was swampland with a lot of cypress trees... then in 1811-1812, there was a series of major major earthquakes that screwed up the land making valleys and hills that weren't there before, and it caused the mississippi to form an undercurrent and back up to fill in reelfoot with anywhere from 5-18 feet of water... it's 15 miles across, and is a giant lake known for its cypress forests, and for being the nations best natural fish hatchery. there are fish in reelfoot native to anywhere from yellowstone to appalachia i think, just on account of it originally forming from river water from the mississippi.
anyhow, i'd never been there, and mom had never been there, and it was a nice day, so i convinced her to get in the car and go with me. we got there just enough before their last pontoon boat cruise, that mom suddenly decided it was a good idea and bought us tickets. mostly the tour guide steered the boat and accepted random questions, and pointed out wildlife as it appeared for an hour and a half. it was a nice day for it. at one point, the boat startled a large carp, and it jumped over a corner of the boat, startling all of US, as it was nearly 2 feet long!
otherwise, we just enjoyed the scenery and the birds, fish, turtles, and water snakes that you could see.
after the pontoon boat, mom and i went to sonic for lunch (her idea), and then back to the lake to walk around the cypress boardwalk... there was a hiking trail for a mile and a half along the lakeshore but mom wasn't game for that -- she just wanted to see what was on the north end of the lake... there, we found an inn, and a nature trail, which i convinced her to try out for a bit... it wandered around the edge of swampland on the fringe of the lake, and we went for about 15 minutes into the woods before mom wanted to turn around... 15 minutes later we were back in the car headed south again... back through missouri and arkansas, and we crossed the river back into downtown memphis at sunset, so the downtown buildings glowing reflecting the sun were gorgeous as we came across.
now, here we are back at home, tired out... it was a beautiful day for being outside :-)
tomorrow's adventure? the art of the motorcycle with the family after church... aren't you jealous? ;-)
night y'all
accomplishments of the day
* read 50 more pages of math history (i.e. in the story of mathematics) -- i'm now up to galois theory (early 1800s), and the consequences of galois's and abel's work with respect to the quintic
* got a birthday present for g-ma p. i'm visiting her next, and her 80th birthday is june 7. there's supposed to be an 80th birthday dinner for her on sunday, june 5... i thought about coming but start work on june 6, so i'd need to leave for the airport by 6pm at her 4-7pm dinner if i wanted to make it back to jersey sunday night yet.... good thing i didn't buy tickets... she called last night and told my mom she needed to make it july instad even though invites already went out b/c her brother had surgery and she wants him there; she commented that she was sorry if she made it tricky in mine and my brother's schedules and then seemed surprised when mom told her (*yet again*) that we couldn't make the dates she picked and that's why we each planned to visit her separately at other points in the summer... doht
*got 2 nice new shirts off the clearance rack at sears
* watched "being julia" with mom -- on the whole i enjoyed it, although my freakin dad came in the living room with his cockatoo samantha and made a production of talking loudly to the bird for the last half hour of the movie and of yelling at me when (a) i asked him to quiet down so i could hear and (b) i got upset when the bird tried to land on me for a bit... so i missed some key lines, but retarded parent aside, it was good
* dinner with the family... 10pm is late to eat already, and that's 11pm in jersey... oi
* went to walmart with my brother
brother quote of the week: "damn straight i got mad skills changing clothes in movin vehicles"
i refuse to explain context.
tomorrow, dad works, brother works, mom has a meeting in the morning, but i'm hoping to convince her to go up to reelfoot lake with me in the afternoon... we'll see. at least i've had a nice time with mom this trip. my brother works so much already and is taking extra hours this week and next so that i've not really seen him at all between sunday and dinner tonight... dad's in his usual fussy about ridiculous things and picking on me like he's in 2nd grade mode, and i'm getting irritated with it. when opportunity avails, i just go somewhere where he isn't when he's being ridiculous, but i have hollered at him a couple times this week... oh well... family...
happy weekend y'all... time to go read myself to sleep :-P
* got a birthday present for g-ma p. i'm visiting her next, and her 80th birthday is june 7. there's supposed to be an 80th birthday dinner for her on sunday, june 5... i thought about coming but start work on june 6, so i'd need to leave for the airport by 6pm at her 4-7pm dinner if i wanted to make it back to jersey sunday night yet.... good thing i didn't buy tickets... she called last night and told my mom she needed to make it july instad even though invites already went out b/c her brother had surgery and she wants him there; she commented that she was sorry if she made it tricky in mine and my brother's schedules and then seemed surprised when mom told her (*yet again*) that we couldn't make the dates she picked and that's why we each planned to visit her separately at other points in the summer... doht
*got 2 nice new shirts off the clearance rack at sears
* watched "being julia" with mom -- on the whole i enjoyed it, although my freakin dad came in the living room with his cockatoo samantha and made a production of talking loudly to the bird for the last half hour of the movie and of yelling at me when (a) i asked him to quiet down so i could hear and (b) i got upset when the bird tried to land on me for a bit... so i missed some key lines, but retarded parent aside, it was good
* dinner with the family... 10pm is late to eat already, and that's 11pm in jersey... oi
* went to walmart with my brother
brother quote of the week: "damn straight i got mad skills changing clothes in movin vehicles"
i refuse to explain context.
tomorrow, dad works, brother works, mom has a meeting in the morning, but i'm hoping to convince her to go up to reelfoot lake with me in the afternoon... we'll see. at least i've had a nice time with mom this trip. my brother works so much already and is taking extra hours this week and next so that i've not really seen him at all between sunday and dinner tonight... dad's in his usual fussy about ridiculous things and picking on me like he's in 2nd grade mode, and i'm getting irritated with it. when opportunity avails, i just go somewhere where he isn't when he's being ridiculous, but i have hollered at him a couple times this week... oh well... family...
happy weekend y'all... time to go read myself to sleep :-P
Friday, May 13, 2005
reviews of the day (including the penultimate week of apprentice :-P)
emma (the movie): this was mom and my rental of the day to watch. it was a long drawn-out story of a bunch of fancy and gossipy british people like a century ago, all worrying about one another's business. the ending was nice but i'm not sure i'd sit through it again. props for ewan mcgregor having shoulder length blond hair :-P
joey (tonight's season finale): the plotline with michael was frankly utterly disturbing and unncessary... however the joey/sarah, joey/alex plotline was interesting. after seeing the note this one ended on, i'll have to be sure to catch the next new episode in the fall.
apprentice (next to last episode): did you notice how much more of the time was focused on tana's event because it was so much more of a tale of screwups. from the start she went in with a "my team sucks" attitude, and didn't seem to have anything under control, whereas kendra had a few minor snaffous (spelling?) to start, but pulled her event off beautifully with no complaints in the end whatsoever. i really did like tana up until the car brochure week, and since then little things she does annoy me. i hate the tone she talks to kendra with; she thinks she's being so nice on the outside, but it comes across as sooooo fake. she claimed to be so sure she won when sooo many things went wrong under her watch too. i wanted to laugh at her when she madea point of letting her team get out of the venue ahead of her so she could be "all administrative and let her employees feel like employees" -- what was that?!?!?! for all her impressiveness on and off throughout the season, i didn't see much of anything go well on screen tonight. i should hope after this episode that kendra has it in the bag... and i have been rooting for her from week one, so for once i would have picked the winner on the season premiere :-) we shall see....
the five people you meet in heaven (the book): i just finished it, and it was quality. i would guess that you need tops 3 hours to read it. it's not horribly deep but it has a good message and it's a unique story. i'd recommend reading it. :-)
lying on your back on the roof of a two story house and looking at stars ;-) (what i do at night when i'm in my parents house and the weather's nice): this has to be one of the best places i've found to hang out ever. even though the rest of the house is old and i'm to the point that it would be ok if my parents moved and bulldozed the house, when i don't have this house to visit anymore, i'll miss having a room where i can step out the window onto the roof and hang out up there. it's a wonderful place to chill :-P
long phone chats with friends: i talked with ben for an hour today and eric for 30-40 minutes, both were quality chats... i like having good friends :-) one of the above two is FANTASTIC with advice and encouragement about life in general, and the other is AWESOME at being philosophical and helping analyze math problems and gossiping :-P, i'm glad both of them are my friends :-P
...with that, end of review session :-P... back to my room to read some more... later dudes :-P
joey (tonight's season finale): the plotline with michael was frankly utterly disturbing and unncessary... however the joey/sarah, joey/alex plotline was interesting. after seeing the note this one ended on, i'll have to be sure to catch the next new episode in the fall.
apprentice (next to last episode): did you notice how much more of the time was focused on tana's event because it was so much more of a tale of screwups. from the start she went in with a "my team sucks" attitude, and didn't seem to have anything under control, whereas kendra had a few minor snaffous (spelling?) to start, but pulled her event off beautifully with no complaints in the end whatsoever. i really did like tana up until the car brochure week, and since then little things she does annoy me. i hate the tone she talks to kendra with; she thinks she's being so nice on the outside, but it comes across as sooooo fake. she claimed to be so sure she won when sooo many things went wrong under her watch too. i wanted to laugh at her when she madea point of letting her team get out of the venue ahead of her so she could be "all administrative and let her employees feel like employees" -- what was that?!?!?! for all her impressiveness on and off throughout the season, i didn't see much of anything go well on screen tonight. i should hope after this episode that kendra has it in the bag... and i have been rooting for her from week one, so for once i would have picked the winner on the season premiere :-) we shall see....
the five people you meet in heaven (the book): i just finished it, and it was quality. i would guess that you need tops 3 hours to read it. it's not horribly deep but it has a good message and it's a unique story. i'd recommend reading it. :-)
lying on your back on the roof of a two story house and looking at stars ;-) (what i do at night when i'm in my parents house and the weather's nice): this has to be one of the best places i've found to hang out ever. even though the rest of the house is old and i'm to the point that it would be ok if my parents moved and bulldozed the house, when i don't have this house to visit anymore, i'll miss having a room where i can step out the window onto the roof and hang out up there. it's a wonderful place to chill :-P
long phone chats with friends: i talked with ben for an hour today and eric for 30-40 minutes, both were quality chats... i like having good friends :-) one of the above two is FANTASTIC with advice and encouragement about life in general, and the other is AWESOME at being philosophical and helping analyze math problems and gossiping :-P, i'm glad both of them are my friends :-P
...with that, end of review session :-P... back to my room to read some more... later dudes :-P
Thursday, May 12, 2005
mini road trip of the day
as promised last night, i got out of town for a bit today.
mom needed to go to lexington, TN to take some standardized tests that her 8th grade students took to the testing center to be graded. they don't allow schools to mail stuff in, so whether you have 1 test or 500, whereever you are in the state, you had to drive your stuff in to get it processed... and mom wanted company.
here's where lexington is in the bigger picture of western TN:
memphis is obviously the lower left corner of the state, and nashville is unlabeled but it's the dark smudge towards the north part of TN on the right end of the picture... lexington's about halfway inbetween so it was like a 110 mile trip each way.
mostly i just sat there and listened to music and occasionally chatted with mom, however going all the way out there, gave me the excuse to ask to stop in jackson, TN for lunch (jackson is labelled on the map, about 20 miles closer to memphis than lexington.
jackson, TN is home of one of the best salad bars/lunch buffets in the state... they have casey jones village:
which is a mini-museum, restaurant, and a few stores all rolled into one.
see historic casey jones house here:
they have all sorts of random stuff inside and out... i told mom to pose with the indian at the door, and this is what i got out of her:
oi... :-P
and here's me with a giant cement indian head:
so it was good lunch and i hadn't been to casey jones village in a couple years (probably the last time was when michelle stopped and visited me a few years ago when she flew into memphis to go to a wedding near jackson, so it was just fun to go back.
here's my final random picture of the day... somebody *obviously* ran out of number "2"s to put up, but wouldn't this be nice?
i'm out... happy thursday to all?
mom needed to go to lexington, TN to take some standardized tests that her 8th grade students took to the testing center to be graded. they don't allow schools to mail stuff in, so whether you have 1 test or 500, whereever you are in the state, you had to drive your stuff in to get it processed... and mom wanted company.
here's where lexington is in the bigger picture of western TN:
memphis is obviously the lower left corner of the state, and nashville is unlabeled but it's the dark smudge towards the north part of TN on the right end of the picture... lexington's about halfway inbetween so it was like a 110 mile trip each way.
mostly i just sat there and listened to music and occasionally chatted with mom, however going all the way out there, gave me the excuse to ask to stop in jackson, TN for lunch (jackson is labelled on the map, about 20 miles closer to memphis than lexington.
jackson, TN is home of one of the best salad bars/lunch buffets in the state... they have casey jones village:
which is a mini-museum, restaurant, and a few stores all rolled into one.
see historic casey jones house here:
they have all sorts of random stuff inside and out... i told mom to pose with the indian at the door, and this is what i got out of her:
oi... :-P
and here's me with a giant cement indian head:
so it was good lunch and i hadn't been to casey jones village in a couple years (probably the last time was when michelle stopped and visited me a few years ago when she flew into memphis to go to a wedding near jackson, so it was just fun to go back.
here's my final random picture of the day... somebody *obviously* ran out of number "2"s to put up, but wouldn't this be nice?
i'm out... happy thursday to all?
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
happy wednesday?
i was asked today what i've been doing while i'm in town, to which the response is "well, my family's always at work, and none of my high school friends are in town, so i sit around in my PJs all day and read"... not quite true, but pretty indicative of the pace of my week.
i enjoy that my family now has sattelite TV and i can put full house reruns on in the background while i eat lunch or dinner...
i enjoy having access to a piano while i'm home alone, even if it's horribly horribly out of tune, and i enjoy remembering how to play. (i like playing when only i can hear me -- my mom's a brilliant organist and when i was 8, she tried for about 2 weeks to try to teach me and gave up on account of my stubbornness, so i taught myself how to play instead, and have no sense of rhythm, other than memorizing how it sounds when mom plays a song and then imitating what i hear in my head... consequently, getting mom to hum tricky rhythms for me, and then imitating what i could hear of her in my head is how i learned flute parts when i played too -- i was not meant to be a good musician :-P... nonetheless it's fun to play around anyhow :-P)
i've been fixing the family computer... besides the drenching the keyboard issue this weekend, they've managed to download a few viruses, etc., and never installed antivirus software, so i've been slowly but surely getting rid of all the things piggybacking on internet explorer and cleaning up the machine with appropriate other software... i think i've finally won! :-P... now to convince them to get something better than a dialup connection ;-)
and otherwise i've been reading. i'm about 1/4 of the way through The Story of Mathematics -- i've made it up to astronomy calculations of the early AD centuries, and it's an interesting read, but not engaging if you don't have a prior interest in math history... if you do though, it's decent, and well illustrated.... the pictures are what drew me in to getting the book in the first place, and a history with lots of visuals to benchmark it along the way gets bonus points in my book.
i've read the first 40ish pages of Mathematics in a Postmodern Age, the book i posted about yesterday. so far that's the intro and chapter 1... it's mostly outlined what they mean by a "modern" view and a "postmodern" view... both in general and with respect to mathematics, and give examples of mathematicians whose working philosophy fits into each. by their definition, a modern view of math is one that says things are true because they are logically derived to be true. that a mathematical theorem is true whether we're thinking about it or not. that mathematics is independent of the cultural construct we have to view it from. a postmodern view says that we put a lot of faith in the mathematical community and that the way it goes about things is correct... that for example, while i can illustrate that 3+4=7 on my fingers or even in a couple lines using the successor function and the postulate that a+S(b)=S(a+b), computing 1204871204712907 x 12095871035790237509 is not something that i can do so easily, and i must use either an algorithm or a calculator or computer program to deduce the answer. but the multiplication algorithm or the calculator are cultural constructs in some sense -- a "proof" of the answer of the above multiplication is not down to the bare bones of mathematics, it uses constructs that we accept to be true. while no one in their right mind would argue that there's more than one answer to that product, one can see the general idea we're getting at here. i think just from the bit of reading i've done today, i fall inbetween the two views, but i'll not elaborate on my view right now -- i've done that from other angles in previous posts... at any rate, lara spends hours reading books about the philosophy of math for FUN when she has free time -- how crazy is that? :-P
finally, in the last hour, i've read the first 1/3 of The Five People You Meet in Heaven -- i've seen this book around and know it was at the top of the new york times bestseller list for awhile... i'm not spoiling the story at all to tell the summary on the back cover-- eddie dies trying to save a kid's life and discovers that heaven is a series of 5 people who you met in your life who changed it forever, whether you realized it at the time or not, and they each have something to teach you -- in this way, heaven is getting the peace of understanding the purpose of your life on earth. so far i've made it partway through the second person... it's an interesting light read... like i said, read all that in an hour, so i'll prolly finish the book tonight or tomorrow... it's quality, and i'm enjoying it.
all the reading aside, wednesday night is the one night i'm guaranteed to get out of the house when i'm in memphis, no matter who's in town. doc and lois are a couple at my church in memphis. he was the FIRST principal of mom's school, when it opened back in 1947, and then he took a second career as a dentist, before he finally retired, but they're still both very active in everything under the sun related to the church and school (they're in their 80s and do all the yardwork there, etc.)... anyhow, for years and years they've run a "college and career" Bible study at their house in germantown on wednesday nights... the regulars are the two of them, leni (lois's older sister), diane (lady around my mom's age who keeps in touch with me year round), liz and brian (married couple 3-4 years older than me (liz used to be one of my babysitters :-P), daniel and janelle (engaged to be married in a few months, daniel was in kindergarten through 8th grade with me), jacob (son of the former pastor of the church), paul (liz's brother who's a year younger than me), and a few other random people on and off. i'd been going to that bible study since before valpo, so when i'm back to visit, wednesday night's i'm with them... tonight we discussed matthew 25:1-13 (the parable of the ten virgins), but next week is the every few months movie and burgers night... so i hit it good time-wise :-P it was good to see people again and i like seeing them all... daniel didn't even realize i was in town and was genuinely surprised and pleased to see me. liz and brian are expecting a baby this fall and *that*'s completely crazy to me, but yay for them... so yeah, i got out of the house for a bit, and it was fun.
i'm done rambling... that sums up my day though... for sitting around in my PJs with books until 5pm, that's a pretty decent novel of a day, eh? ;-P
i get out of the house, moreover out of *town*, tomorrow morning for a bit, but i'll tell more about that after i get back...
night y'all! :-P
i enjoy that my family now has sattelite TV and i can put full house reruns on in the background while i eat lunch or dinner...
i enjoy having access to a piano while i'm home alone, even if it's horribly horribly out of tune, and i enjoy remembering how to play. (i like playing when only i can hear me -- my mom's a brilliant organist and when i was 8, she tried for about 2 weeks to try to teach me and gave up on account of my stubbornness, so i taught myself how to play instead, and have no sense of rhythm, other than memorizing how it sounds when mom plays a song and then imitating what i hear in my head... consequently, getting mom to hum tricky rhythms for me, and then imitating what i could hear of her in my head is how i learned flute parts when i played too -- i was not meant to be a good musician :-P... nonetheless it's fun to play around anyhow :-P)
i've been fixing the family computer... besides the drenching the keyboard issue this weekend, they've managed to download a few viruses, etc., and never installed antivirus software, so i've been slowly but surely getting rid of all the things piggybacking on internet explorer and cleaning up the machine with appropriate other software... i think i've finally won! :-P... now to convince them to get something better than a dialup connection ;-)
and otherwise i've been reading. i'm about 1/4 of the way through The Story of Mathematics -- i've made it up to astronomy calculations of the early AD centuries, and it's an interesting read, but not engaging if you don't have a prior interest in math history... if you do though, it's decent, and well illustrated.... the pictures are what drew me in to getting the book in the first place, and a history with lots of visuals to benchmark it along the way gets bonus points in my book.
i've read the first 40ish pages of Mathematics in a Postmodern Age, the book i posted about yesterday. so far that's the intro and chapter 1... it's mostly outlined what they mean by a "modern" view and a "postmodern" view... both in general and with respect to mathematics, and give examples of mathematicians whose working philosophy fits into each. by their definition, a modern view of math is one that says things are true because they are logically derived to be true. that a mathematical theorem is true whether we're thinking about it or not. that mathematics is independent of the cultural construct we have to view it from. a postmodern view says that we put a lot of faith in the mathematical community and that the way it goes about things is correct... that for example, while i can illustrate that 3+4=7 on my fingers or even in a couple lines using the successor function and the postulate that a+S(b)=S(a+b), computing 1204871204712907 x 12095871035790237509 is not something that i can do so easily, and i must use either an algorithm or a calculator or computer program to deduce the answer. but the multiplication algorithm or the calculator are cultural constructs in some sense -- a "proof" of the answer of the above multiplication is not down to the bare bones of mathematics, it uses constructs that we accept to be true. while no one in their right mind would argue that there's more than one answer to that product, one can see the general idea we're getting at here. i think just from the bit of reading i've done today, i fall inbetween the two views, but i'll not elaborate on my view right now -- i've done that from other angles in previous posts... at any rate, lara spends hours reading books about the philosophy of math for FUN when she has free time -- how crazy is that? :-P
finally, in the last hour, i've read the first 1/3 of The Five People You Meet in Heaven -- i've seen this book around and know it was at the top of the new york times bestseller list for awhile... i'm not spoiling the story at all to tell the summary on the back cover-- eddie dies trying to save a kid's life and discovers that heaven is a series of 5 people who you met in your life who changed it forever, whether you realized it at the time or not, and they each have something to teach you -- in this way, heaven is getting the peace of understanding the purpose of your life on earth. so far i've made it partway through the second person... it's an interesting light read... like i said, read all that in an hour, so i'll prolly finish the book tonight or tomorrow... it's quality, and i'm enjoying it.
all the reading aside, wednesday night is the one night i'm guaranteed to get out of the house when i'm in memphis, no matter who's in town. doc and lois are a couple at my church in memphis. he was the FIRST principal of mom's school, when it opened back in 1947, and then he took a second career as a dentist, before he finally retired, but they're still both very active in everything under the sun related to the church and school (they're in their 80s and do all the yardwork there, etc.)... anyhow, for years and years they've run a "college and career" Bible study at their house in germantown on wednesday nights... the regulars are the two of them, leni (lois's older sister), diane (lady around my mom's age who keeps in touch with me year round), liz and brian (married couple 3-4 years older than me (liz used to be one of my babysitters :-P), daniel and janelle (engaged to be married in a few months, daniel was in kindergarten through 8th grade with me), jacob (son of the former pastor of the church), paul (liz's brother who's a year younger than me), and a few other random people on and off. i'd been going to that bible study since before valpo, so when i'm back to visit, wednesday night's i'm with them... tonight we discussed matthew 25:1-13 (the parable of the ten virgins), but next week is the every few months movie and burgers night... so i hit it good time-wise :-P it was good to see people again and i like seeing them all... daniel didn't even realize i was in town and was genuinely surprised and pleased to see me. liz and brian are expecting a baby this fall and *that*'s completely crazy to me, but yay for them... so yeah, i got out of the house for a bit, and it was fun.
i'm done rambling... that sums up my day though... for sitting around in my PJs with books until 5pm, that's a pretty decent novel of a day, eh? ;-P
i get out of the house, moreover out of *town*, tomorrow morning for a bit, but i'll tell more about that after i get back...
night y'all! :-P
mini movie review :-P
tonight's movie in the week of rentals mom and i got last night? the muse
i'd never heard of it before and it wasn't the best done or most believeable acting, but it was a cute late night movie rental.
the main idea is that this movie writer is burnt out and lacking inspiration and then meets a "muse" through one of his friends... he spends all this time trying to keep her happy (which costs more $$ than he has), while his muse ends up inspiring his wife to open her own (extremely successful) cookie store instead... the ending has a random twist, but it was overall pretty predictable. sharon stone played the muse... she had such an annoying character to play, but she did it well :-P on the whole, it was a cute idea for a movie, but the way they went about presenting it, the attitude changes of some of the characters were too sudden to be convincing... whatever... we laughed anyhow.
now, to sleep.
later dudes :-P
i'd never heard of it before and it wasn't the best done or most believeable acting, but it was a cute late night movie rental.
the main idea is that this movie writer is burnt out and lacking inspiration and then meets a "muse" through one of his friends... he spends all this time trying to keep her happy (which costs more $$ than he has), while his muse ends up inspiring his wife to open her own (extremely successful) cookie store instead... the ending has a random twist, but it was overall pretty predictable. sharon stone played the muse... she had such an annoying character to play, but she did it well :-P on the whole, it was a cute idea for a movie, but the way they went about presenting it, the attitude changes of some of the characters were too sudden to be convincing... whatever... we laughed anyhow.
now, to sleep.
later dudes :-P
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
happy tuesday?... and yay for books :-P
so the zoo didn't so much work out today... i showed up at mom's school at 4:15, as agreed upon, but her teachers and her head janitor were feeling chatty so we didn't leave until 4:45, arriving at the zoo at 5:05, and although it doesn't close til 6, the last admission is at 5... so here we were, 2/3 of the way downtown, and for nothing... oops... we'll try again earlier next week.
so, instead, we decided to run by the central memphis library (my idea)... the main location of the city/county library system is a really nice building... it was built while i was at college, and if i actually lived in town, i think i would be there several hours every week just because i love the place! mom didn't realize that there's a small bookstore just inside the front doors that sells old books for as low as 25 or 50 cents, so i showed her around that, then dropped her off in fiction, while i went up to scope out the math section.... given it's a public library, and not a math research library, but i do generally find interesting math history books on the shelves... of note this time: Mathematics in a Postmodern Age: A Christian Perspective... this book came out 4 years ago, and i'd never heard of it before... i got mom to check it out for me on her library card, and i'll return it before i head out of town, finished or not; if i like what i make it through, i'll just buy myself a copy off of amazon.
i think there need to be more books that explore the relationship between the sciences and religion. while it's very true and needful to remember that science explores the laws, relationships, and patterns of the physical world, and religion (at least Christianity) explores the relationship of people with God, so they're exploring different things, it's also true that religion can affect one's views of the philosophy of science, and science can affect one's views about religion. i've made an effort to read what i do find in this vein... for example things a computer scientist rarely talks about by don knuth, or the science of God by gerald schroeder... however, in schroeder's book for example, when i talk about it with non-religious friends, i feel compelled to add the coda "well, even if it's not all accurate, it's interesting food for thought"... the sad thing is, most literature that is on this cusp so far either "bends" science to match a religious philosophy or bends theology to match a scientific agenda, at least for some parts. biographies/autobiographies aside (i'd put knuth's book in this category -- even though it's transcripts of a lecture series, i got more of his personal attempts to meld his faith and his work as a computer scientist out of it than the tone of a book of research)... it's rare to find a book that both well-read theologians and well-read scientists will both acclaim as a good book.
in keeping with being mindful of that, here's a review by a grad student in a christian magazine (click here), and here's one by a non-Christian reviewer from one of the national math societies (the MAA) (click here). Notice that the first review seems to be wholeheartedly supportive, which doesn't surprise me, while the math one is favorable by also not willing to gloss over structural problems with the book... this is a general trend in this area of writing (christianity intersecting mathematics) (i.e. the christian reviews are glowing while the science reviews question the logic/validity of some arguments), however, unlike many reviews i've read where the science review calls the book rubbish, the MAA review comments that while it's not perfect, this book adds serious discussion to this area and it will be interesting to see what comes from this book's authors in the future. at any rate, i was excited to see that this book exists, and i'm very interested to see what it says.
oh! and here's something i didn't expect and was absolutely delighted to find out about. this book i'm rambling about and haven't read yet was written by a coalition of authors who are members of the Association for Christians in the Mathematical Sciences -- i never knew that such an organization existed! this makes my day! i've strongly felt for a long time that there needs to be more seriously scholarship and dialogue on the intersection of faith and mathematics that both sides of the coin (non-christian mathematicians as well as non-mathematician christians) respect. i was extremely excited to find out that there is a small but growing formal organization of people doing just that.
it's been a happy academic day :-P
now, dinner and scrubs :-P
later dudes
so, instead, we decided to run by the central memphis library (my idea)... the main location of the city/county library system is a really nice building... it was built while i was at college, and if i actually lived in town, i think i would be there several hours every week just because i love the place! mom didn't realize that there's a small bookstore just inside the front doors that sells old books for as low as 25 or 50 cents, so i showed her around that, then dropped her off in fiction, while i went up to scope out the math section.... given it's a public library, and not a math research library, but i do generally find interesting math history books on the shelves... of note this time: Mathematics in a Postmodern Age: A Christian Perspective... this book came out 4 years ago, and i'd never heard of it before... i got mom to check it out for me on her library card, and i'll return it before i head out of town, finished or not; if i like what i make it through, i'll just buy myself a copy off of amazon.
i think there need to be more books that explore the relationship between the sciences and religion. while it's very true and needful to remember that science explores the laws, relationships, and patterns of the physical world, and religion (at least Christianity) explores the relationship of people with God, so they're exploring different things, it's also true that religion can affect one's views of the philosophy of science, and science can affect one's views about religion. i've made an effort to read what i do find in this vein... for example things a computer scientist rarely talks about by don knuth, or the science of God by gerald schroeder... however, in schroeder's book for example, when i talk about it with non-religious friends, i feel compelled to add the coda "well, even if it's not all accurate, it's interesting food for thought"... the sad thing is, most literature that is on this cusp so far either "bends" science to match a religious philosophy or bends theology to match a scientific agenda, at least for some parts. biographies/autobiographies aside (i'd put knuth's book in this category -- even though it's transcripts of a lecture series, i got more of his personal attempts to meld his faith and his work as a computer scientist out of it than the tone of a book of research)... it's rare to find a book that both well-read theologians and well-read scientists will both acclaim as a good book.
in keeping with being mindful of that, here's a review by a grad student in a christian magazine (click here), and here's one by a non-Christian reviewer from one of the national math societies (the MAA) (click here). Notice that the first review seems to be wholeheartedly supportive, which doesn't surprise me, while the math one is favorable by also not willing to gloss over structural problems with the book... this is a general trend in this area of writing (christianity intersecting mathematics) (i.e. the christian reviews are glowing while the science reviews question the logic/validity of some arguments), however, unlike many reviews i've read where the science review calls the book rubbish, the MAA review comments that while it's not perfect, this book adds serious discussion to this area and it will be interesting to see what comes from this book's authors in the future. at any rate, i was excited to see that this book exists, and i'm very interested to see what it says.
oh! and here's something i didn't expect and was absolutely delighted to find out about. this book i'm rambling about and haven't read yet was written by a coalition of authors who are members of the Association for Christians in the Mathematical Sciences -- i never knew that such an organization existed! this makes my day! i've strongly felt for a long time that there needs to be more seriously scholarship and dialogue on the intersection of faith and mathematics that both sides of the coin (non-christian mathematicians as well as non-mathematician christians) respect. i was extremely excited to find out that there is a small but growing formal organization of people doing just that.
it's been a happy academic day :-P
now, dinner and scrubs :-P
later dudes
Monday, May 09, 2005
etc.
i spend way too much time while i'm here trying to herd bugs out of my bedroom window with a towel... oi.
mom's the only normal one of the crew around here :-P... tonight, she suggested that we use the blockbuster gift card one of her friends gave her for christmas (she NEVER rents movies on her own), and we used up the whole thing renting 4 movies for this week (and hopefully we'll find time to watch them all before saturday!)
tonight, we watched "shakespeare in love"... neither of us had seen it before, and both of us really enjoyed it.
that's about all there is to say. tomorrow, not even brother will be home (he was today)... i get to entertain myself until 4pm, when i'm supposed to pick mom up from work so we can go to the zoo... we'll see how much we see before the zoo closes at 6...
high of 87 tomorrow and low of 65 tonight... our overnight lows here are higher than the highs in jersey last week :-P... heh
retreating to my room for the night -- later dudes :-P
mom's the only normal one of the crew around here :-P... tonight, she suggested that we use the blockbuster gift card one of her friends gave her for christmas (she NEVER rents movies on her own), and we used up the whole thing renting 4 movies for this week (and hopefully we'll find time to watch them all before saturday!)
tonight, we watched "shakespeare in love"... neither of us had seen it before, and both of us really enjoyed it.
that's about all there is to say. tomorrow, not even brother will be home (he was today)... i get to entertain myself until 4pm, when i'm supposed to pick mom up from work so we can go to the zoo... we'll see how much we see before the zoo closes at 6...
high of 87 tomorrow and low of 65 tonight... our overnight lows here are higher than the highs in jersey last week :-P... heh
retreating to my room for the night -- later dudes :-P
top 1000 public high schools
newsweek ranked them here
white station was #621 in the country
but unless i miscounted, it was only #3 in Tennessee, and it was #1 in the western half of the state (the only TN schools i saw above it were in brentwood and in oak ridge, both out east)
go spartans? :-P
white station was #621 in the country
but unless i miscounted, it was only #3 in Tennessee, and it was #1 in the western half of the state (the only TN schools i saw above it were in brentwood and in oak ridge, both out east)
go spartans? :-P
some funnies from the inbox
here's a few entertaining things:
(1) steve klee sent me this link: http://www.collegehumor.com/?movie_id=149448
it's a barbershop quintet singing a song about math... it's pretty great :-P
(2) i was asked by the rutgers math dept. chair to write the "pizza seminar news" section of the spring 2005 newsletter... below are my results, which were approved by him already... i was pretty amused with what i came up with :-P (note: if you think this sounds too goofy or something, if you read the previous "pizza seminar news" sections on old newsletters on the rutgers math dept. website, they're all written in similar tones as well) :-P
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Graduate Pizza Seminar is a weekly gathering for students to present interesting mathematical topics and research projects to their peers. Of course, free pizza is always provided. Since January 2004, the Seminar has met in the Graduate Common Room; the seminar and many other graduate students continue to greatly enjoy this space, whose use is restricted to graduate students. Learning from the difficulties of years past, throughout this year, we used Gerlanda's, the campus pizza supplier, and with good results too -- our pizza was only late once. However, we will gladly accept the donation of a wheelbarrow, wagon, or other wheeled object to cart large amounts of drinks across campus. To learn more about the seminar, visit the seminar website at http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~seminars/GraduatePizza.html.
As usual, in 2004-2005, the seminar covered a wide variety of topics. In the fall, one talk on mathematical modeling featured a computer demonstration, and spring 2005 continued the trend with three experimental math talks also including live computer experimentation (i.e. Even Pizza Seminar now reflects the growth of computer-assisted mathematics!). As for the requisite statistics: 13 talks were given in Fall 2004, and 14 were given in Spring 2005. Attendance ranged from 20 to 35 students with an average of 25 each week.
Following is a list of the seminar speakers for 2004-2005:
(insert list of speakers and talk titles)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(3) random email i got from a professor at arizona state... i've never met him but he's a copublisher on a paper i helped write my senior year at valpo... not only have we never met, we've never corresponded ever before either... this just made me laugh at what a small world it is:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
greetings lara,
small world. first, we write a paper together, then i go to trinity to do
some 0-sequence stuff and discover you reu'd there (did you know that
0-sequences are the origins of pebbling?), and now you're at my alma mater
(phd '90 under ron graham). did you know that m. saks was the inventor
of pebbling? say hi to him for me. have you discovered the frisbee golf
course r. hochberg and i invented? we had to change a hole or two over
the years because of construction -- does anyone still play it? i enjoyed
your list of quotes, especially j. kahn's. brought back fond memories
of his classes. enjoy...
cheers,
glenn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
you never know *what*'s gonna show up in my inbox :-P
(1) steve klee sent me this link: http://www.collegehumor.com/?movie_id=149448
it's a barbershop quintet singing a song about math... it's pretty great :-P
(2) i was asked by the rutgers math dept. chair to write the "pizza seminar news" section of the spring 2005 newsletter... below are my results, which were approved by him already... i was pretty amused with what i came up with :-P (note: if you think this sounds too goofy or something, if you read the previous "pizza seminar news" sections on old newsletters on the rutgers math dept. website, they're all written in similar tones as well) :-P
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Graduate Pizza Seminar is a weekly gathering for students to present interesting mathematical topics and research projects to their peers. Of course, free pizza is always provided. Since January 2004, the Seminar has met in the Graduate Common Room; the seminar and many other graduate students continue to greatly enjoy this space, whose use is restricted to graduate students. Learning from the difficulties of years past, throughout this year, we used Gerlanda's, the campus pizza supplier, and with good results too -- our pizza was only late once. However, we will gladly accept the donation of a wheelbarrow, wagon, or other wheeled object to cart large amounts of drinks across campus. To learn more about the seminar, visit the seminar website at http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~seminars/GraduatePizza.html.
As usual, in 2004-2005, the seminar covered a wide variety of topics. In the fall, one talk on mathematical modeling featured a computer demonstration, and spring 2005 continued the trend with three experimental math talks also including live computer experimentation (i.e. Even Pizza Seminar now reflects the growth of computer-assisted mathematics!). As for the requisite statistics: 13 talks were given in Fall 2004, and 14 were given in Spring 2005. Attendance ranged from 20 to 35 students with an average of 25 each week.
Following is a list of the seminar speakers for 2004-2005:
(insert list of speakers and talk titles)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(3) random email i got from a professor at arizona state... i've never met him but he's a copublisher on a paper i helped write my senior year at valpo... not only have we never met, we've never corresponded ever before either... this just made me laugh at what a small world it is:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
greetings lara,
small world. first, we write a paper together, then i go to trinity to do
some 0-sequence stuff and discover you reu'd there (did you know that
0-sequences are the origins of pebbling?), and now you're at my alma mater
(phd '90 under ron graham). did you know that m. saks was the inventor
of pebbling? say hi to him for me. have you discovered the frisbee golf
course r. hochberg and i invented? we had to change a hole or two over
the years because of construction -- does anyone still play it? i enjoyed
your list of quotes, especially j. kahn's. brought back fond memories
of his classes. enjoy...
cheers,
glenn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
you never know *what*'s gonna show up in my inbox :-P
more fun
so as i was getting ready to go to my room to hide for the night earlier (dad's cockatoo sami has decided this trip that she *really* likes me, and dad lets her out of her cage each night for a little supervised playtime... last night she kept making beelines for me... even so much as flying through 2 rooms to try to land on me, so i've decided during "bird out of cage time" this trip, i need to be in my room hiding from said bird), my brother comments to me "dude, you don't wanna see a movie tonight?"
turns out that he did some work on the house of the guy who owns ajay theaters (the 2 movie theaters in the city that aren't malco theaters, one of those two ajay theaters is the closest theater to our house) he got a bunch of free movie tickets (brother installs satellite dishes, so he meets lots of different people :-P)... anyhow, we used the free tickets to see hitchhikers guide to the galaxy... brother's never even read the books, but this was my second time through.
i didn't mention it last time but the chicken little trailer that they run right before hitchhiker is pretty brilliant... if you've seen it you understand... just had to say that i'm a fan of how they trick you :-P
i enjoyed hitchhiker the first time, but i enjoyed it even immensely more this time, so that was fantastic.
now, it's 1am this time, 2am in the time zone my head thinks it's in... i should be asleep. (how anticlimactic is that?)
later dudes.
turns out that he did some work on the house of the guy who owns ajay theaters (the 2 movie theaters in the city that aren't malco theaters, one of those two ajay theaters is the closest theater to our house) he got a bunch of free movie tickets (brother installs satellite dishes, so he meets lots of different people :-P)... anyhow, we used the free tickets to see hitchhikers guide to the galaxy... brother's never even read the books, but this was my second time through.
i didn't mention it last time but the chicken little trailer that they run right before hitchhiker is pretty brilliant... if you've seen it you understand... just had to say that i'm a fan of how they trick you :-P
i enjoyed hitchhiker the first time, but i enjoyed it even immensely more this time, so that was fantastic.
now, it's 1am this time, 2am in the time zone my head thinks it's in... i should be asleep. (how anticlimactic is that?)
later dudes.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
oh joy, oh joy
yesterday was a long day.
i left jersey for pittsburgh on friday... you never know what age kids my aunt there will have when you visit (she and my uncle are foster parents)... the current crew (besides my 13 year old cousin rachel) are charles (age 5), jason (age 4), and shyanne (8 months)... the boys were playing in the front yard when i arrived, while my aunt and uncle were inside... to my surprise, they both walked right up to me and asked "who are you?" and shook hands with me and introduced themselves... friendly kids...
at dinner, charles, who is in preschool, asked me to write his name on his placemat, and i did... later he was all excited that they had written his name on his hotdog... finally, rachel helped him get an ice cream cone and when he sat next to me again, he exuberantly pointed out the letters on the cone and said "look! my name!", to which i replied, "um, sorry, that spells 'TAKE OUT'"... my aunt laughed *really* hard at that :-P
that was friday.
yesterday i got up at 7:30 and headed out of pittsburgh by 8:30 (am eastern time)... drove straight to cincinnati and met memphis jenny at a pottery show there for an hour before heading onward... drove the rest of the way to memphis getting in at 8:30 (pm central time)... roommate called at one point and in my reach across the car to grab the handsfree set, i answered with the microphone flying across the car before i could speak... first thing i heard was her laughing really hard, and she commented "at first it sounded like a spaceship had answered and i was sincerely worried you had found a way to get to the moon without telling me first!" -- that was amusing :-P
last night, dad, ryan, and i went out to eat... dad gave me crap that i wanted to go somewhere where i could get salad instead of ordering in pizza... again at lunch today when i just got the salad bar, he was upset that i didn't want appetizers or dessert... for as much crap as he's given me about my weight over the years, you would think he'd be happy to see the change in diet and the fact that i'm finally starting to lose weight now too...
i was exceedingly irritated last night after dinner when i went to check email from the math department and from the REU and discovered first when i tried to type "mail.yahoo.com" that i couldn't get the stupid machine to type an "i"... i asked brother what was up and he commented that it was fine yesterday and he didn't know what i did to it to make it act up... as i fiddled and leaned over the computer desk to reach around to the back of the computer tower, i noticed my shirt got wet, and sure enough when i turned the keyboard upside down i poured a whole coffee cup full of water out of it. i really really don't understand how my family could have saved up for so long to buy themselves a computer, fully understand the investment it was for them, and then drench it and ruin parts of it. even after drying it out, the keyboard is non-function (it was a cheap one anyhow), so i dragged mom to office depot this afternoon and got her to buy a new one, and an optical mouse (because her old cheap mouse is annoyingly sticky anyhow)... she was surprised that she only needed to spend $10-15 each if she really wanted to and ended up with a $30 really nice keyboard, and a standard $15 optical mouse... and now i can check email at home again -- this is a good thing.
it takes a matter of about 3 hours for me to remember why i don't come home much. no matter how much they clean up, after the birds (right at the bottom of the stairs from my room), they never deep clean the house enough to get rid of bugs... every time i go to my room there's a cloud of small flying bugs going up the stairs ahead of me... i just leave all the windows open a lot, and that helps to make them escape, but as soon as we get a rainy day here, i'm going to be miserable.
the 8th graders at mom's school are on their class trip this week... mom said i can install maple on the 8th grade computer for the week (as long as i take it off again by next weekend) and i have their classroom to myself to have a dsl connection to do some math work... that'll be good... so i guess i'll be hanging out at my old grade school this week.
the memphis zoo also does free hours on tuesday afternoon and mom thinks she and i should go this week, so that'll be nice too.
true i grew up here, but i completely fail to understand how my family can live in a house this gross and dirty... my brother cleans *my* room decently before i come home each time, but there and in front of the computer by the front door are about the only places in the whole house i can stand to be for more than 5 minutes... i'm glad i don't live in this house anymore :-P
done complaining... maybe i'll read the afternoon away and think about doing work tomorrow.
later dudes.
i left jersey for pittsburgh on friday... you never know what age kids my aunt there will have when you visit (she and my uncle are foster parents)... the current crew (besides my 13 year old cousin rachel) are charles (age 5), jason (age 4), and shyanne (8 months)... the boys were playing in the front yard when i arrived, while my aunt and uncle were inside... to my surprise, they both walked right up to me and asked "who are you?" and shook hands with me and introduced themselves... friendly kids...
at dinner, charles, who is in preschool, asked me to write his name on his placemat, and i did... later he was all excited that they had written his name on his hotdog... finally, rachel helped him get an ice cream cone and when he sat next to me again, he exuberantly pointed out the letters on the cone and said "look! my name!", to which i replied, "um, sorry, that spells 'TAKE OUT'"... my aunt laughed *really* hard at that :-P
that was friday.
yesterday i got up at 7:30 and headed out of pittsburgh by 8:30 (am eastern time)... drove straight to cincinnati and met memphis jenny at a pottery show there for an hour before heading onward... drove the rest of the way to memphis getting in at 8:30 (pm central time)... roommate called at one point and in my reach across the car to grab the handsfree set, i answered with the microphone flying across the car before i could speak... first thing i heard was her laughing really hard, and she commented "at first it sounded like a spaceship had answered and i was sincerely worried you had found a way to get to the moon without telling me first!" -- that was amusing :-P
last night, dad, ryan, and i went out to eat... dad gave me crap that i wanted to go somewhere where i could get salad instead of ordering in pizza... again at lunch today when i just got the salad bar, he was upset that i didn't want appetizers or dessert... for as much crap as he's given me about my weight over the years, you would think he'd be happy to see the change in diet and the fact that i'm finally starting to lose weight now too...
i was exceedingly irritated last night after dinner when i went to check email from the math department and from the REU and discovered first when i tried to type "mail.yahoo.com" that i couldn't get the stupid machine to type an "i"... i asked brother what was up and he commented that it was fine yesterday and he didn't know what i did to it to make it act up... as i fiddled and leaned over the computer desk to reach around to the back of the computer tower, i noticed my shirt got wet, and sure enough when i turned the keyboard upside down i poured a whole coffee cup full of water out of it. i really really don't understand how my family could have saved up for so long to buy themselves a computer, fully understand the investment it was for them, and then drench it and ruin parts of it. even after drying it out, the keyboard is non-function (it was a cheap one anyhow), so i dragged mom to office depot this afternoon and got her to buy a new one, and an optical mouse (because her old cheap mouse is annoyingly sticky anyhow)... she was surprised that she only needed to spend $10-15 each if she really wanted to and ended up with a $30 really nice keyboard, and a standard $15 optical mouse... and now i can check email at home again -- this is a good thing.
it takes a matter of about 3 hours for me to remember why i don't come home much. no matter how much they clean up, after the birds (right at the bottom of the stairs from my room), they never deep clean the house enough to get rid of bugs... every time i go to my room there's a cloud of small flying bugs going up the stairs ahead of me... i just leave all the windows open a lot, and that helps to make them escape, but as soon as we get a rainy day here, i'm going to be miserable.
the 8th graders at mom's school are on their class trip this week... mom said i can install maple on the 8th grade computer for the week (as long as i take it off again by next weekend) and i have their classroom to myself to have a dsl connection to do some math work... that'll be good... so i guess i'll be hanging out at my old grade school this week.
the memphis zoo also does free hours on tuesday afternoon and mom thinks she and i should go this week, so that'll be nice too.
true i grew up here, but i completely fail to understand how my family can live in a house this gross and dirty... my brother cleans *my* room decently before i come home each time, but there and in front of the computer by the front door are about the only places in the whole house i can stand to be for more than 5 minutes... i'm glad i don't live in this house anymore :-P
done complaining... maybe i'll read the afternoon away and think about doing work tomorrow.
later dudes.
oi...
so i try to check email last night now that i'm in TN & discover that someone had poured a cup of water on the family computer keyboard...currently using the 'on-screen keyboard' &typing slooooooooowly with a crappy mouse... this sucks.... making mom go keyboard & mouse shopping with me later.... more news when i have access to a more functional machine... later dudes
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Southern bound
it's off to pittsburgh tomorrow for me, and memphis on saturday -- haven't been home since christmas and just barely then.
goals while i'm putzing around memphis for two weeks when neither of the two high school friends i keep in touch with are :-P
* actually do my final project for dr. z.'s class
* read some math. namely, a journal article i'm supposed to referee for dr. z., a few other papers for our reading class (which continues in june), and Combinatorics of Finite Sets (Ian Anderson).
* read some non-fiction just for fun, namely, Journey Through Genius (William Dunham) and/or The Story of Mathematics (Richard Mankiewicz)
* read some fiction, namely, The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom) and/or Prague: A Novel (Arthur Phillips)
* take full advantage of the $2 movie theather by my parents house
* show up at each of my parents' jobs one afternoon, wander around, and get a free lunch out of whichever one i'm visiting. in mom's case, this is basically just visiting my grade school/where i worked in HS/my church during the work week and seeing lots of people who have known me since i was 5... in dad's case this involves free admission to the botanic gardens :-)
* i would add "go see a planetarium or IMAX show at the pink palace with my brother", but apparently in february they got a budget cut and the planetarium is indefinitely closed and the museum isn't open when my brother's off work... this makes me sad. i know that you have to prioritize when there's budget troubles, but it makes me sad to see educational places having to close their doors....
* finish arranging this summer's REU schedule
* learn how to pick locks
[this last one probably needs some explanation. in a back issue of Mental Floss there was a short article on how to pick locks. i figured my landlord would kill me if i tried to pick a lock attached to his house and he saw me... replace "my landlord" with "most any professor" and "his house" with "the math building" and you have an equally true statement... however at home, my dad has lots of padlocks that go on the outer fences to the yard. occasionally these rust or he buys new ones just to have different keys... it should be easy to find a few unused padlocks in a drawer somewhere to play with and no one would care... thus, goal is to put mental floss to the test and learn to pick locks while i'm home ;-)]
i think that about sums it up.
i'm ready to hit the road now, but it's probably better to get some sleep first ;-)
night y'all!
goals while i'm putzing around memphis for two weeks when neither of the two high school friends i keep in touch with are :-P
* actually do my final project for dr. z.'s class
* read some math. namely, a journal article i'm supposed to referee for dr. z., a few other papers for our reading class (which continues in june), and Combinatorics of Finite Sets (Ian Anderson).
* read some non-fiction just for fun, namely, Journey Through Genius (William Dunham) and/or The Story of Mathematics (Richard Mankiewicz)
* read some fiction, namely, The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom) and/or Prague: A Novel (Arthur Phillips)
* take full advantage of the $2 movie theather by my parents house
* show up at each of my parents' jobs one afternoon, wander around, and get a free lunch out of whichever one i'm visiting. in mom's case, this is basically just visiting my grade school/where i worked in HS/my church during the work week and seeing lots of people who have known me since i was 5... in dad's case this involves free admission to the botanic gardens :-)
* i would add "go see a planetarium or IMAX show at the pink palace with my brother", but apparently in february they got a budget cut and the planetarium is indefinitely closed and the museum isn't open when my brother's off work... this makes me sad. i know that you have to prioritize when there's budget troubles, but it makes me sad to see educational places having to close their doors....
* finish arranging this summer's REU schedule
* learn how to pick locks
[this last one probably needs some explanation. in a back issue of Mental Floss there was a short article on how to pick locks. i figured my landlord would kill me if i tried to pick a lock attached to his house and he saw me... replace "my landlord" with "most any professor" and "his house" with "the math building" and you have an equally true statement... however at home, my dad has lots of padlocks that go on the outer fences to the yard. occasionally these rust or he buys new ones just to have different keys... it should be easy to find a few unused padlocks in a drawer somewhere to play with and no one would care... thus, goal is to put mental floss to the test and learn to pick locks while i'm home ;-)]
i think that about sums it up.
i'm ready to hit the road now, but it's probably better to get some sleep first ;-)
night y'all!
apprentice, final 2!
leigh predicted earlier today that the final 2 were probably rigged to be craig and kendra just to watch them have at it again, even though she (leigh) really likes tana.
she was wrong.
i was pleased when the executives who interviewed the contestants unanimously said that craig didn't give straight answers and lacked substance. as a person he doesn't lack substance, but as a communicator he does, and this week he fell through.
this means that trump is finally going to hire a woman apprentice since tana and kendra are all that's left!
i sooooooooooooo just about busy a gut laughing when one of the two commented to the other, "shoot, (i/you) got all the scatterbrains and (i/you) got all the worst tempers!" i can't remember who said it, but it was accurate! with their "employees" being preassigned, it was definitely rigged so that both kendra and tana would have some major challenges.
as erin commented, "if you can handle us, you deserve to work in the trump organization, but if you can handle brian, chris, and kristin, you deserve a medal of honor or something!"... next week's gonna be a trip.
i'm interested to see how it works out -- i've been rooting for kendra since week one and here she is in the final two; i have respect for tana minus the week she quit on kendra in favor of sleep so i think she brings a lot to the table too, but her team is rough, so we'll see what happens.
at any rate, i'm pleased with the pick for final two, so yay for that :-)
she was wrong.
i was pleased when the executives who interviewed the contestants unanimously said that craig didn't give straight answers and lacked substance. as a person he doesn't lack substance, but as a communicator he does, and this week he fell through.
this means that trump is finally going to hire a woman apprentice since tana and kendra are all that's left!
i sooooooooooooo just about busy a gut laughing when one of the two commented to the other, "shoot, (i/you) got all the scatterbrains and (i/you) got all the worst tempers!" i can't remember who said it, but it was accurate! with their "employees" being preassigned, it was definitely rigged so that both kendra and tana would have some major challenges.
as erin commented, "if you can handle us, you deserve to work in the trump organization, but if you can handle brian, chris, and kristin, you deserve a medal of honor or something!"... next week's gonna be a trip.
i'm interested to see how it works out -- i've been rooting for kendra since week one and here she is in the final two; i have respect for tana minus the week she quit on kendra in favor of sleep so i think she brings a lot to the table too, but her team is rough, so we'll see what happens.
at any rate, i'm pleased with the pick for final two, so yay for that :-)
ben quote of the day
so if this more than 2 people at a time thing realy does become a long term problem, we just need to make sure you meet a great guy who only has one parent, because just you and him, you'll be fine, meet one parent, you'll be fine, meet both... ooh, let's watch lara explode!
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
officially the most antisocial lara ever
so i thought going to falafel night would be a nice change of pace and that it would be a nice friendly and simple way to get back into the swing of hanging out with my friends here... i live with colleen and leigh, and i go out to eat or see movies with eric, scott, and ben each regularly, but since august that's about it. if you catch me outside of the offices, or outside of the house with more than 3 people at a time, you must be seeing a lara clone and not me.
tonight, dinner at the guys' house seemed perfectly harmless. when i arrived, ian, leigh, sam, and bill were working on cooking in the kitchen, a few people were downstairs playing pool, etc., and eric was in his room working... i curled up on the floor of eric's room and read, which was fine.
when it got to be time for dinner though, i freaked. instead of getting dinner, i stayed put and read, my excuse to eric being that i was in the middle of a chapter. when eric got his food and came back up to be like "dude, what's wrong?, you need to get firsts so that we can divy out seconds", i shrugged and just kept reading. the longer i knew there were the better part of a dozen people around the table downstairs, the less i wanted to be the last to enter the room, and so i just stayed put. the more i just stayed put, the more i convinced myself that it was best to just stay put in a corner of eric's room until there was no one left in the kitchen or on the way from eric's room to my car, so that's exactly what i did. i left for eric's house around 4:30, and left around 8:45, and in that time i read 106 pages of "mostly harmless" curled up on his floor, basically not moving. i was honestly and sincerely freaked out about going one room over to a room full of my friends to get a plate of falafel, and so i played statue and read for 4 hours instead.
that can't be normal.
the thing is, i've been in this anti-more than 3 people at a time mode for so many months now (since the end of last summer) that even if ahead of time i think i *want* to snap out of it and do something with a *group* of my friends, when it comes down to it i spazz and freeze up at the last moment. i've been doing this so long without worrying about it, that i have no clue anymore how to reverse the process.
i'm officially a sociophobic-panic-attack-ridden weirdo. go me.
i'm having lunch with ben tomorrow... maybe he'll have something brilliant to say about all this. we shall see.
night y'all
tonight, dinner at the guys' house seemed perfectly harmless. when i arrived, ian, leigh, sam, and bill were working on cooking in the kitchen, a few people were downstairs playing pool, etc., and eric was in his room working... i curled up on the floor of eric's room and read, which was fine.
when it got to be time for dinner though, i freaked. instead of getting dinner, i stayed put and read, my excuse to eric being that i was in the middle of a chapter. when eric got his food and came back up to be like "dude, what's wrong?, you need to get firsts so that we can divy out seconds", i shrugged and just kept reading. the longer i knew there were the better part of a dozen people around the table downstairs, the less i wanted to be the last to enter the room, and so i just stayed put. the more i just stayed put, the more i convinced myself that it was best to just stay put in a corner of eric's room until there was no one left in the kitchen or on the way from eric's room to my car, so that's exactly what i did. i left for eric's house around 4:30, and left around 8:45, and in that time i read 106 pages of "mostly harmless" curled up on his floor, basically not moving. i was honestly and sincerely freaked out about going one room over to a room full of my friends to get a plate of falafel, and so i played statue and read for 4 hours instead.
that can't be normal.
the thing is, i've been in this anti-more than 3 people at a time mode for so many months now (since the end of last summer) that even if ahead of time i think i *want* to snap out of it and do something with a *group* of my friends, when it comes down to it i spazz and freeze up at the last moment. i've been doing this so long without worrying about it, that i have no clue anymore how to reverse the process.
i'm officially a sociophobic-panic-attack-ridden weirdo. go me.
i'm having lunch with ben tomorrow... maybe he'll have something brilliant to say about all this. we shall see.
night y'all
vanilla nut... potatoes?
that's right... i'm weird.
here i am heading out of town in a day and a half so i'm trying to finish little odds and ends i have in the fridge. in an effort to finish some potatoes, i was happily cooking and went to the fridge in search of milk... seeing that we had one and halfway done cooking already, i opted for the closest thing in the fridge to milk -- vanilla nut creamer... it actually turned out pretty tasty.
so there's a random idea. want to put a little bit of random unexpected flavor in your food? when a recipe calls for milk, mix in a little flavored creamer too and you win. :-)
or maybe i just think i win because i'm crazy.
whatever ;-P
here i am heading out of town in a day and a half so i'm trying to finish little odds and ends i have in the fridge. in an effort to finish some potatoes, i was happily cooking and went to the fridge in search of milk... seeing that we had one and halfway done cooking already, i opted for the closest thing in the fridge to milk -- vanilla nut creamer... it actually turned out pretty tasty.
so there's a random idea. want to put a little bit of random unexpected flavor in your food? when a recipe calls for milk, mix in a little flavored creamer too and you win. :-)
or maybe i just think i win because i'm crazy.
whatever ;-P
a funny & a gameplan
i've developed a morning tradition as of the past few months -- after i get ready in the morning, i make myself a bowl of grits and eat it in front of the TV... always watching MSNBC until breakfast is done.
this morning, doing the same (eating grits and watching MSNBC), one of the headlines that rolled across the bottom of the screen in text said "runaway bridge jennifer wilbanks..." obviously runaway bride, but the typo completely cracked me up. someone over in the MSNBC studio didn't do their spellchecking job today ;-)
i have decided that i'm officially making today a mental vacation day... if the only thing left on my to do list is my final project for dr. z. and he's giving everyone As anyhow, it doesn't matter if i do it in the next 2 days, the next 2 weeks, or the next 2 months, so long as i do it. so why should i try to drudge up motivation i'm severely lacking right now? i've worked my head off for 4 months straight, minus spring break, and i'm just ready to collapse and be lazy for a bit.
on that note, i woke up at 9 today (my usual is 8) and finished reading "so long and thanks for all the fish", the 4th hitchhikers book... here, nearly 1:30, i'm still in PJs and plan to grab lunch, then work away at "mostly harmless", the 5th and final one in the series. in 3.5 hours, there's falafel night at the guys' house, and i'll probably show up for that, but if i'm not done with "mostly harmless" yet, you can bet that i'll be sitting in a corner with the book and kicking anyone who tries to get me to be more social :-P... i really have turned extremely antisocial towards large groups (i.e. more than 4 people) in the past few months... ooops.
oh well, back to reading :-)
this morning, doing the same (eating grits and watching MSNBC), one of the headlines that rolled across the bottom of the screen in text said "runaway bridge jennifer wilbanks..." obviously runaway bride, but the typo completely cracked me up. someone over in the MSNBC studio didn't do their spellchecking job today ;-)
i have decided that i'm officially making today a mental vacation day... if the only thing left on my to do list is my final project for dr. z. and he's giving everyone As anyhow, it doesn't matter if i do it in the next 2 days, the next 2 weeks, or the next 2 months, so long as i do it. so why should i try to drudge up motivation i'm severely lacking right now? i've worked my head off for 4 months straight, minus spring break, and i'm just ready to collapse and be lazy for a bit.
on that note, i woke up at 9 today (my usual is 8) and finished reading "so long and thanks for all the fish", the 4th hitchhikers book... here, nearly 1:30, i'm still in PJs and plan to grab lunch, then work away at "mostly harmless", the 5th and final one in the series. in 3.5 hours, there's falafel night at the guys' house, and i'll probably show up for that, but if i'm not done with "mostly harmless" yet, you can bet that i'll be sitting in a corner with the book and kicking anyone who tries to get me to be more social :-P... i really have turned extremely antisocial towards large groups (i.e. more than 4 people) in the past few months... ooops.
oh well, back to reading :-)
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
my day
*turned in my last combo hw ever (for this prof anyways)
*watched my mock lecture video... not quite as bad as i thought but it sure is weird watching yourself on tape... dr. butler said i'm a natural at it and that i did a beautiful job, in that he was certain i'd been teaching for years, and was surprised to hear that i haven't taught before at all. eric's comment is that butlers philosophy of teaching seems a little formulaic to him and that he thinks butler will always be quick to praise if we do the 3-4 things he emphasized in TA training throughout the semester, but regardless of to what degree of esteem you take butler's advice (and i think he's a very clear teacher and good person to pattern lecture style off of), like leigh commented, it's a good thing to be in his favor.
*tried to work on commutative algebra, but gave up and decided i really don't care to do anymore homework for it
*picked a final project for dr. z.'s class and worked on it for quite awhile, but with no major results... at least i found something cool to work with, and he knows what i'm up to now for that class
*went to the math library and checked out 4 of the 7 recommended books for a class i'm considering taking or auditing in the fall... i figure i can browse a little this summer and decide accordingly if i want the course for credit or not
*went to subway with eric and griped to him a lot about math
*got back to work on my final project for dr. z.'s class, and now am quitting with lots to do tomorrow
here's the random news of the day
(1) there's a party at eric's house right now... scott's throwing it because sam and paul (sam's my year, paul's a year older and is my church buddy) both passed their orals today (scott, sam, and paul all have the same advisor and are his only students right now)... i decided to stay put here and work... i already congratulated paul in person this morning, and i'll give sam a high five when i see him next. i'm just not in a large group of people drinking mood, even if they are all my friends, and thus i'm not there.... 15 minutes ago though, working at my computer, i get the following email from eric's address:
"Ah, so you tried to pawn off your free Panasonic Athens 2004 Olympics pin
on me that we got at Circuit City, did you!?!? Did you really think you'd
get away with it?! Well, I FOUND IT ha ha ha ha ha. And I will give it
back to you, whether you like it or not!!!"
that's soooooooooo not eric, so someone thought they were being funny... whatever.
(2) i got a crazy voicemail earlier too when i was ignoring the phone to work... here goes:
"hello lara, this is (insert name)... calling to see how your last call for homework day went... um, groovy... i guess i'll catch you later and... have a happy kwanzaa?"
conclusion? i'm tired, antisocial, and have crazy friends :-P
night y'all
*watched my mock lecture video... not quite as bad as i thought but it sure is weird watching yourself on tape... dr. butler said i'm a natural at it and that i did a beautiful job, in that he was certain i'd been teaching for years, and was surprised to hear that i haven't taught before at all. eric's comment is that butlers philosophy of teaching seems a little formulaic to him and that he thinks butler will always be quick to praise if we do the 3-4 things he emphasized in TA training throughout the semester, but regardless of to what degree of esteem you take butler's advice (and i think he's a very clear teacher and good person to pattern lecture style off of), like leigh commented, it's a good thing to be in his favor.
*tried to work on commutative algebra, but gave up and decided i really don't care to do anymore homework for it
*picked a final project for dr. z.'s class and worked on it for quite awhile, but with no major results... at least i found something cool to work with, and he knows what i'm up to now for that class
*went to the math library and checked out 4 of the 7 recommended books for a class i'm considering taking or auditing in the fall... i figure i can browse a little this summer and decide accordingly if i want the course for credit or not
*went to subway with eric and griped to him a lot about math
*got back to work on my final project for dr. z.'s class, and now am quitting with lots to do tomorrow
here's the random news of the day
(1) there's a party at eric's house right now... scott's throwing it because sam and paul (sam's my year, paul's a year older and is my church buddy) both passed their orals today (scott, sam, and paul all have the same advisor and are his only students right now)... i decided to stay put here and work... i already congratulated paul in person this morning, and i'll give sam a high five when i see him next. i'm just not in a large group of people drinking mood, even if they are all my friends, and thus i'm not there.... 15 minutes ago though, working at my computer, i get the following email from eric's address:
"Ah, so you tried to pawn off your free Panasonic Athens 2004 Olympics pin
on me that we got at Circuit City, did you!?!? Did you really think you'd
get away with it?! Well, I FOUND IT ha ha ha ha ha. And I will give it
back to you, whether you like it or not!!!"
that's soooooooooo not eric, so someone thought they were being funny... whatever.
(2) i got a crazy voicemail earlier too when i was ignoring the phone to work... here goes:
"hello lara, this is (insert name)... calling to see how your last call for homework day went... um, groovy... i guess i'll catch you later and... have a happy kwanzaa?"
conclusion? i'm tired, antisocial, and have crazy friends :-P
night y'all
400% smart?
| Your brain: 60% interpersonal, 20% visual, 40% verbal, and 280% mathematical! |
| Congratulations on being 400% smart! Actually, on my test, everyone is. The above score breaks down what kind of thinking you most enjoy doing. A score above 100% means you use that kind of thinking more than average, and a score below 100% means you use it less. It says nothing about how good you are at any one, just how interested you are in each, relatively. A substantial difference in scores between two people means, conclusively, that they are different kinds of thinkers. Matching Summary: Each of us has different tastes. Still, I offer the following advice, which I think is obvious:
|
 |
My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
|
| Link: The 4-Variable IQ Test written by chriscoyne on Ok Cupid |
Monday, May 02, 2005
ode to being a non-1st year grad student
there are no more finals.
today was the last day of classes, i still have 2 more homework assignments and i don't want to do them.
class 1: my advisor's lecture class... i've turned in homework fairly regularly all semester. he's told us he will give us all As, but it's in our best interest to turn in a final project if we want him to hold us in high esteem. he already holds me in decently high esteem and i never picked a project so it depends on how motivated i feel on picking and doing one. i *should* since i have 3 days before i head south, but, if i feel like not doing math, maybe i'll just keep not doing math ;-)
class 2: combinatorial commutative algebra. the professor originally said she'd give us homework every two weeks... that turned into 3 assignments corresponding to the 3 major chunks of the semester... and then that turned into never getting around to writing a 3rd assignment. on assignment 1, i was the only one who turned anything in (of the other 4 students, 1 was finishing his thesis, and 2 have been working on oral quals). now, on assignment two, i remember learning these things in some form before spring break, but it's been so long and i never put them to use outside of paying attention in lecture that i really have no idea how to start. sarah, (whose advisor is the professor teaching the class), claimed last week that she'd be around tomorrow working on the assignment, so i might see if she's around to help, and if i don't feel inspired by the end of tomorrow, heck i've turned in more than anyone else, and i have a feeling we all get As anyhow, so what's it to me?
this is the nice thing about not being a first year student anymore. there are no more finals. in fact, although there are "grades", they're really not significant at all. this doesn't do much for motivation to *do* homework, but whatever. after one more semester hopefully i'll be done with orals and not required to take classes anymore either. *that* will be wonderful. halfway there, but not quite.
in happy news: tammy called tonight... it was the first time we had chatted in a couple months (since mid-march i guess)... she was really into learning about john nash's work at one point in undergrad, so i had sent her an email about meeting him, and she wrote back how much she enjoyed reading it and that her and marcus were closing on a house this week and that she and i should chat again sometime soon, so tonight she was a much welcome distraction from work.... we talked for nearly an hour. :-)
otherwise, i'm in a weird mood though... now that classes are done i don't want to work for a bit (and perhaps i just won't?)... i also seem to get annoyed with just about everything anyone does, even so much as breathing and have been rather passive-aggressive lately if things do annoy me. i recognize that no one's doing anything mean or frustrating and that i just have an exceedingly short fuse right now... eric's theory is it's just the end of the semester and that it's ok. it's a good thing i'll be in the car for two days straight later in the week... i think after that i'll chill out some.
but the chat was good... i'm glad for tammy :-)
now, maybe to read some non-math.
night y'all :-P
today was the last day of classes, i still have 2 more homework assignments and i don't want to do them.
class 1: my advisor's lecture class... i've turned in homework fairly regularly all semester. he's told us he will give us all As, but it's in our best interest to turn in a final project if we want him to hold us in high esteem. he already holds me in decently high esteem and i never picked a project so it depends on how motivated i feel on picking and doing one. i *should* since i have 3 days before i head south, but, if i feel like not doing math, maybe i'll just keep not doing math ;-)
class 2: combinatorial commutative algebra. the professor originally said she'd give us homework every two weeks... that turned into 3 assignments corresponding to the 3 major chunks of the semester... and then that turned into never getting around to writing a 3rd assignment. on assignment 1, i was the only one who turned anything in (of the other 4 students, 1 was finishing his thesis, and 2 have been working on oral quals). now, on assignment two, i remember learning these things in some form before spring break, but it's been so long and i never put them to use outside of paying attention in lecture that i really have no idea how to start. sarah, (whose advisor is the professor teaching the class), claimed last week that she'd be around tomorrow working on the assignment, so i might see if she's around to help, and if i don't feel inspired by the end of tomorrow, heck i've turned in more than anyone else, and i have a feeling we all get As anyhow, so what's it to me?
this is the nice thing about not being a first year student anymore. there are no more finals. in fact, although there are "grades", they're really not significant at all. this doesn't do much for motivation to *do* homework, but whatever. after one more semester hopefully i'll be done with orals and not required to take classes anymore either. *that* will be wonderful. halfway there, but not quite.
in happy news: tammy called tonight... it was the first time we had chatted in a couple months (since mid-march i guess)... she was really into learning about john nash's work at one point in undergrad, so i had sent her an email about meeting him, and she wrote back how much she enjoyed reading it and that her and marcus were closing on a house this week and that she and i should chat again sometime soon, so tonight she was a much welcome distraction from work.... we talked for nearly an hour. :-)
otherwise, i'm in a weird mood though... now that classes are done i don't want to work for a bit (and perhaps i just won't?)... i also seem to get annoyed with just about everything anyone does, even so much as breathing and have been rather passive-aggressive lately if things do annoy me. i recognize that no one's doing anything mean or frustrating and that i just have an exceedingly short fuse right now... eric's theory is it's just the end of the semester and that it's ok. it's a good thing i'll be in the car for two days straight later in the week... i think after that i'll chill out some.
but the chat was good... i'm glad for tammy :-)
now, maybe to read some non-math.
night y'all :-P
