Canto XXIV

This was written a week ago... But I haven't had a chance to post it until now. Enjoy?

So I think my last post was on Kermit. It's been a little while, but I've got some stuff to say for once, so strap yourselves in for a long post. Well, maybe nothing too profound, but that's what you get when this comes at you from 36,000 feet. I'm actually typing this in the sky, and when I get home and have some internet access I'll post it up. I've got plans baby. Big plans for this flight.

My Dad was in town to see how his eldest lives. And see his whole family. The Fitz family Christmas Party was nice. I'm not really sure how well Steph and I fit into these things. The problem is that my parents, my brother and I grew up 2500 miles away from the closest Fitz relation. So I've only met everyone a few times in my entire life. All the cousins seem to know each other fairly well, and I'm still struggling to learn all their names. The net result is that Steph and I are fairly quiet at these things. I talk to everyone, tell them school is going fine and that Steph's happy with her job. But these people, other than looking like me, don't feel like family. It's hard to explain. Steph always wondered why I looked forward to seeing my friends more than my family when we visit people. But now she seems to realize that my friends are closer to me than my family (parents and brother excepted, obviously). For her, she grew up with family and cousins her age all around her, so she's much closer to her family. I think she's knows my cousin's names better than I do. Another reason I'm a little self-consious at these events is that I can't make any dirty jokes. My uncles are cool and all, but there's only so many penis and 'your mom' jokes you can do around them before some social taboo is crossed. And I love the penis jokes. I mean, penises are funny.

Our in flight movie was Little Miss Sunshine. That was pretty funny. Every movie is made better by some Rick James.

And this week Stormy came to visit. Apparently I'm one of the last holdovers to call him Stormy. What's with you people, that has to be among the greatest nicknames/epitets of all time and you're letting it slip away. Some of my favorites:
1) Rosy-fingered Dawn
2) Africanus (or really just being named after a region you conquered)
3)
4) Stormy
5) the Great (whenever this gets added to your first name, you know you're doing alright)

But with him in town, not a whole lot got done around the office or house. They'll be plenty of work to do this January. But we did walk the Freedom Trail, saw some famous dead people's graves, Bunker/Breeds Hill and the USS Constitution. Of course, it being the middle of December, there wasn't much open, but had a good time anyway. And we discovered that we didn't remember as much American History and we thought. Could only name a few battles of the Revolutionary War. Well, it was a good refresher to walk around and try and remember all that stuff...

I saw Monica Lewinsky graduated from the London School of Economics. Good to see that my brother is getting a degree from such a prestigious place.

We flew the day Denver was shut down. Actually we didn't get it too bad. Logan-O'Hare-PDX. We were only delayed by about 5 hours in Chicago and that was about it. Otherwise smooth. Of course, it's always stressful when you're flying standby and there are hundreds of other people stuck in the same situation. But we got through with what I would describe as a minimal amount of fuss. And our luggage made it as well.




It's funny, I've always had rather good flying experiences. I've never lost my luggage, and the longest I've ever been stranded in an airport is about 6 or 7 hours. So nothing too bad. Steph on the other hand has had terrible experiences, in fact her whole family has had to deal with lost luggage, missed flights and day-plus waits. All my worst flight experiences have been with my little lady by my side. So my good flight karma somehow balances her bad karma and we only get a little screwed up. But it always works out, no worries.

But once we arrived we had tickets for the Nutcracker with my parents. Landed at 5:45, made it to the show downtown by 7:15. I've got to say I was a little disappointed. The little girl, Clara I think, was actually played by a little girl, which means for most of the second half with the Sugarplum Fairy and King and such she didn't dance. I mean, ballet is always impressive, and something I could never do. Maybe I just demand perfection from the arts. But this wasn't an issue of execution, it was the directing, casting and choreography. Well, I won't bother with a point-by-point analysis of what I didn't like, but it was only OK.

And lastly, the Ducks game... Well, that really deserves it's own post. I think everyone is a little disappointed with the team right now. It's an issue of consistency. This is now twice in 4 years where the team has ended on a rather lengthy losing streak, bowl game included. In fact, were it not for last year's very special season, I might even think about calling for some changes at the head coaching position. But I don't think it's Bellotti, I think it's who he's surrounding himself with. I never liked the Crowton hire, and I still think Aliotti's only an average defensive coordinator. The quarterbacks haven't really progressed this season. Everyone knows the talent in there, but it's making sure the right players are there and in position to make good plays is all about coaching, and that wasn't true in the second half of the season. Even in the first half of the season there were a lot of mistakes being made, but talent and homefield managed to overcome those issues. But the chickens came home to the proverbial roost. Well, there's always next year.

Canto XXIII

A much less crazy week this time around. Finished up the last of the grading I need to do this term, so now my laptop is all my own. I've got one more assignment to finish up, and then I'm free until January! Of course, now I need to start actually doing some kind of research, so I'm not so much free and much as moving from one kind of indentured serviture to another. But while all of this may be exciting, our neighbors have decided to put up their "christmas decorations". I can only put that in quotes because does this:

look festive to you? I keep thinking about pinning a note to him in the middle of the night that says "Piggy drove me to it" or "No funeral". It's very creepy. They lynched Kermit the Frog! Or the world's greatest frog had problems that never seemed to surface during his show. The other day as I walked into work, he was slowly twisting in the wind and followed me with his lifeless eyes as I walked past. Why, Kermit, why?!? And now I feel the need to listen to the Rainbow Connection... Elliot Smith, he is not.

In other news my dad is in town for the family Christmas party. All the brothers and sisters together again. I'm sure Grandma will be very happy. But for me, it's back to my homework. So close to freedom. Don't the rest of you miss school?

Canto XXII

So it's been a busy week, so sorry for the lack of posting. But it was all worth it because...

I passed! Hooray! That's the last of my qualification exams at MIT! Yes! There were 3 of us, and two passed. So overall good, but not a triumphal day for the CTP grad students. There was one weird thing. Just as my exam ended (and I mean just, I had walked out of the room for maybe 10 seconds) the power went out. The exam committee poked their heads out for two seconds just to see if I had played a joke on them or something, then went back in and began deliberating again. There were still emergency lights for the building, but everyone was out in the halls joking and having a good time of it. After a few minutes, the committee came out and shook my hand and all was good with the world. I don't think it hurt that I brought in some coffee cake for them. Dave decried it as the most suck-up thing he had ever seen, couldn't believe I would stoop to such levels, and as he was saying this, they (the committee) came back by my office to pick up seconds. Then he said he was going to do it next term when he's taking the exam.

There was a big fire in the building two buildings over from us, and one of the transformers blew. A big one. It took out a few city blocks of power. Everyone stuck around for the pizza normally served with a talk at noon, then went home to get some work done. It's amazing how little you can get done without lights, computers or the internet. If we had had power, I would have posted immediately, but now you'll understand.

But that wasn't the only thing this week. On wednesday night there was a physics graduate student event at the Harpoon Brewery. And by event I mean unlimited beer sampling for an hour and a half. So that was fun. And intoxicating. Who says you can't have a little fun in the middle of the week just 2 days before one of the most important exams of your graduate student life? For a little bonus, I slept in 11 hours on thursday to rest up. Steph got her haircut on thursday, and it looks very cute. It's shorter than her shoulders. If you remember her hair back in freshman and sophomore year, it's roughly that length. It looks great and the next time you see her give her a compliment. And yesterday was spent on the orgy of consumer capitalism that is Christmas shopping. I'm about 2/3 done, I'm not sure where Steph is. I'm not sure if a Christmans letter is going to get done this year. I would have to mail it next weekend, and I don't know between everything at school finishing up and my dad visting on thursday if it's going to get done. We'll see. Consider this blog the letter unless you get a real one in the mail. Oh yeah, my dad is visiting this weekend to see the family for the Christmas party. Should be good.

So that's at least part of the news from our end this week. I don't know how much I'll be able to post this week as well, but I'll try and get one in somewhere. I'm sure something funny will happen to me this week.

Canto XXI

Wow. Just watched UCLA upset USC. What a great game. I can't believe USC was held to a single touchdown. And kudos to UCLA's defense. Last year their offense was the big surprise, this year the defense has really come alive. Maybe they'll get their whole act together one of these years. And now don't the look stupid for agreeing to go to the Emerald Valley Bowl? They're #4 in the Pac-10, they should be where the Ducks are (despite the head-to-head loss). I told you that slotting the bowls before the last game was a bad idea...

Otherwise just hanging around the house, wathcing some football, having a white russian, and cleaning up. I think these are my favorite saturdays. No pressure or nothing. Of course, my oral exam is less than a week away. Gulp (literally and figuratively).

Canto XX

I just wanted to get this in right now. So the Ducks are off to the Las Vegas Bowl. Disappointing year for the Ducks I feel, but can only be summed up in one word: turnovers. Hopefully a month of hands drills will ensure a bowl win over BYU. Note the key subplot for this is Gary Crowton taking on his old school. We're all intrigued. I also love that the Pac-10 has set up all it's bowls, including UCLA. They have basically already conceded that they will lose this weekend's matchup with USC. How can the athletic director do that? Who made that decision?

Canto XIX

So if I wasn't trying to get to 100 (C) for my titles, I think the title for this one would be "The Great Equalizer". Which, in this case, is the bathroom at work. It's a decent bathroom, although only 1 soap dispenser works (out of 3). But it's great because I can pee standing next to Nobel Prize winners. Also, otherwise intimidating faculty member will come in and start to raise holy hell in one of the stalls. I mean, it was like one of those comedic scenes with gratuitous farting sounds and lots of splashing. He does drink a lot of coffee, so maybe this is par for the course for him, but after that incident, I've had a hard time not thinking about this whenever I see him. The reason why I'm writing this now, though, is that yesterday a certain faculty member was urinating hands free! I don't think I've gone hands free since second grade. There's always a concern that there could be some kind of backlash and suddenly you can't control where the flow is going. I respect and admire this man, but now suddenly everything is thrown into question. He does wash his hands, which is more than I can say for some people around here, but this is really screwing with me. Are there any other hands-free people in this world?

Canto XVIII

No more weekend. Man I hate mondays. Not that I don't love my work. But still, hearing the alarm on a monday morning will certainly be one of my (many) punishments in Hell.

But it was a good weekend. Got some school stuff done, but not enough to feel "ahead". Did some work around the house, but there's still plenty on the to-do list. We need to get some lights and a Christmas Tree. I insist on getting a cheap smallish plastic one, so it won't burn down our place while were gone. But Steph thinks this is akin to worshipping Baal. She's against it. We also went to the mall for a while doing some window shopping and get gift ideas. And saw the new Bond film. We went to the 10:45am showing on Sunday, which means cheap tickets! In fact, just $6 a piece, cheapest I've been to the movies since Eugene. And the movie wasn't too bad. Too long by a good 20 minutes (very noticable when you have to go to the bathroom), but fun. Would have been more enjoyable on a friday or saturday night, but the price was right. I think I can recommend this. If you like action films. Finally, the leftovers. I made it through the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, regular stuffing (the vegetarian stuffing is still around), and Steph finished off the beans. Looks like it's just the mountain of turkey that's between me and a new meal. Got to keep eating...

Canto XVII

So Thanksgiving was pretty awesome. It turns out that my starving Indian officemate's plans fell through for Thanksgiving (some "friends" were suppose to come up and visit, but bailed because a bus trip is too expensive from Penn State), so he and his special lady friend came over for some turkey. Of course he's vegetarian, so he missed that part of it (the 3 of us, on the other had, barely made a dent in that bird). But even with twice the number of people Steph planned for, we still have a mountain of leftovers. And you should have seen Indian man eat - like there was no tomorrow. (Not kidding, he made it through 4ths!) I managed two large platefuls and some pie and ice cream. But I was (and still am) stuffed. I introduced them to Alice's Restaurant. And we played some Trivial Pursuit and Monkey Ball 2. Good times all around. I love Thanksgiving. And I just finished up all the dishes, so that leaves the rest of the weekend to watch the Ducks, Jets and everything else. For those gambling, take the over on the turnovers line for the Civil War. Maybe I'll post again after the game. If I'm feeling up to it. It's televised out here, so at least I'll be able to watch it.

[After the game]

So they lost. But at least it was a thrilling ending. I don't really begraudge the Beavers. But the Ducks should have won that game. 2 turnovers -> 14 points. 3 (!!!) missed FGs. Another missed PAT. (Which was made up because the next time they didn't trust their kicker and went for 2 and got it, but still...) Also, the officiating left something to be desired. I think overall the Ducks benefitted, but definitely not the best day for the zebras. The Pac-10 really needs to work on their offciating crews. Stewart was having a monster day. Two huge kickoff returns, and a decent day running the ball (the only thing holding him back was the playcalling, he really needed to get some more carries). The Ducks should have won that game. Arg.

Canto XVI

So it seems that the whole Cube gang is getting this going, so I must carry on. I'm not going to complain about the Ducks on this post though. What's the point. They just like to give the other team the ball. Very thoughtful of them, when you think about it. And a good lesson for kids everywhere this holiday season. We'll see how they do this weekend against the Beavs.

In school related news, there's a bunch of stuff going on. This term seems to be shaping like I had hoped, and I'm getting a lot done. My "oral exam" is "coming up" in just 2 1/2 weeks (Dec. 8th). It's on g-2. Did you know that, in fact, it's not zero? But it's pretty damn close. Real close. I'm also doing a part-time TA to earn some extra cash. That, in turn, let me buy this laptop I'm typing on right now. I love my new MacBook. Sooo pretty. I found an advisor to work with. I need to come up with a clever name for him on my blog. Hmm. Maybe that will be my blog post contest over this weekend. I've still got a while left in the term because I'm taking a few classes at that school up Mass Ave (Harvard, for those who don't know the Cambridge geography), and they go into January for no good reason. So I'll be busy with that crap for a while.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and Steph went a little crazy with the dinner plans. We have a 14 pound turkey in our fridge, plus various veggies, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, cranberries (for the sauce, but there will be extra), rolls, stuffing, gravy, ... you're getting the idea. THIS IS JUST FOR THE TWO OF US!!! I don't think between the counter and kitchen table we'll be able to hold everything. I like Thankgiving, and I like leftovers, but I think after this year I may never need to eat turkey again. But it promises to be good.

Canto XV

Nobel Prize in Physics was just announced. It was given to two Americans for the COBE satellite, which made the first precise measurements of the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). This led to the strongest evidence of the "hot big bang" scenario of the early universe, which is why they were awarded the Nobel. A very good choice because the follow up for this experiment is WMAP which has made plenty of news and done a lot of good physics, and the next generation experiment after that is PLANCK which will continue this work. I can't stress enough how important it is to accurately measure the CMB, it provides a beautiful window into the the early stages of the universe.

The guess around our office was that it would go to the two groups who measured the accelerating universe looking at type 1-A supernova data, which showed that there is a cosmological constant ("dark energy"). Still observational cosmology, and I think there's little doubt that the accelerating universe will win a Nobel one day. Americans continue their dominance in physics.

It's been a week, but not a whole lot going on. Last week my biggest thrill was successfully path integrating something. Not just a regular integral mind you, a path integral. Essentially, the idea is to look at the energy of an object for a given trajectory from point A to point B that it takes ("path"), then integrate over all possible paths to find the quantum mechanical probability for it to travel from A to B. This is not a well-defined mathematical object and it often leads to infinity as the answer ("divergences"), which then need to be cancelled out. But when it all works out and you get a nice, finite answer, it's a great feeling. That problem sucked.

The weekend was great, I could use more like it. Saturday was flag football (we lost 60-something to 0, but I had a nice pass defensed in the end zone. They scored the next play anyway.), followed by college football (Oregon rout of ASU, Ducks looking good heading to the Cal Bears this weekend. I've got a breakfast riding on it with a certain Berkeley alum.), then went to the Red Sox game that night (Sox up 4-3 going into the 9th and lost 5-4 with a blown save. Oh well, it was fun anyway.), and finally wound up at a CTP buddy's "housewarming party" for an hour before I had to get home and crash (Not a real housewarming party - he didn't move but his old roommate did and his new one would actually let him have a party.). Sunday slept in, watched the Jets lose in spectacular fashion, then did some stuff around the house like take down the air conditioner. All in all, not too bad.

Canto XIV

Now I know I shouldn't complain about the Simpsons after all these years (I just got Season 8 on DVD! Hank Scorpio, you are my hero.), but I'm a little annoyed about the last night's episode. It involved Bart torturing Skinner by forcing him to do demeaning things because of his deadly peanut allergy. As a way to get back, it showed Skinner breaking into Dr. Hibbert's office to find out Bart's allergies. I immediately turned to Steph on the couch and said "butterscotch and imitation butterscotch", in reference to the episode "Blood Fued" when the family is quizzing Marge about her knowledge of the family. (Doing the research for this blog entry I also discovered that I had forgotten the extra "and glow-in-the-dark monster make-up".) Would it have been that difficult to make a small reference to the old school episode? I'm sure I wasn't the only person who thought of it when they showed this. And have the climax involve some sort of delicious butterscotch-coated shrimp candy. Mmmmm...

And the Jets are 2-1. Not too bad. Don't be fooled by the record, they aren't a good team. But 2-1 is better than 1-2 and certainly 0-3. Maybe they'll end up 6-10 or 7-9 this year. That would mark improvement, and if the offense can find some sort of player called a "running back" they may begin to get consistently better. One other random thought after watching Sunday Night Football is that Tom Brady isn't looking like Tom Brady of '01-'05. He shouldn't be throwing 55 passes in a game, and I'm surprised by the amount of (what appears to me to be) complaining, both to the refs and his teammates. They're still going to win the division (the 'Fins just aren't living up to the hype the end of last season brought them, and the Bills and Jets aren't good teams), but are looking at another early post-season exit.

Canto XIII

See, this is why I didn't want to blog. Suddenly a week flys by and I feel like I have to talk about a million things. Okay, time for quick shots...

1) Okalahoma-Oregon. Well, OU isn't the first team to get screwed by a bad call and lose and they won't be the last. Sorry 'bout that, hope the Ducks make the most of this season. But man that was a crazy game.
2) Great party for my birthday. Although it went to a weird place and, no, I don't think I'm going to elaborate. And now I'm 26. Just 3 more to the next prime number...
3) My brother has left for jolly old England. I saw him last month, and as of right now I don't know when I'm going to see him again. That makes me a little sad, but I'm happy he's persuing what he wants to do and I'm really proud of what he's done so far. (I moved 3000 miles to do what I want to do, so why can't he go 6000?)
4) Classes have begun in earnest. I'm now a Harvard student. Sigh.
i. Beyond the SM -> Quantum Mechanics and Spacetime. Nima Arkani-Hamed has decided to teach us all about why the cosmological constant is small, but non-zero. We had our first "real" lecture today on Quantum Mechanics. He's very animated while lecturing (which keeps me awake at a minimum), and it was interesting stuff. I think I'm really going to enjoy this class.
ii. Intro to String Theory. Andy Strominger is much more subdued while lecturing. But methodical and very understandable. We may not finish as much in a term with him teaching, but you'll understand what was done, which you can't always say after some classes. And if string theory is in my future, this will obviously be an important class.
5) Watched the Weird Al video for "White and Nerdy", and sadly understood just about everything he was talking about. (Except I hadn't heard the song he was parody-ing. Hmmm.) I particularly enjoyed the Schroedinger Equation for the hydrogen atom in the background, "getting freaky with the bubble wrap" and the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Well, that's enough for tonight kiddies!

Canto XII

So the week has begun. And is now halfway over. I'm trying to teach myself about differential forms, which doesn't seem like it should be too hard (I've got a cute little book from Dover about them) since I already know the math, it's really just learning how to use notation. But it's been slow going. On the up side, yesterday I had one of those "ah-ha!" moments where suddenly the whole chapter made sense. I then finished off the whole rest of the chapter and did all the problems. It felt good. One of my favorite moments is reaching that point where suddenly you understand something that you didn't just 5 minutes earlier. Great feeling.

I need to stop with the hacky sack. At least twice a day we waste 20 minutes kicking that damn bag around. I just learned that hacky sack was invented in Oregon! How cool is that! And we've been playing some squash lately. I need to get a new racket as the old one I'm using (and I mean old, the thing is a freaking antique) is giving me blisters.

Classes start next week which means that I will no longer be able to goof off as much. String Theory and Physics Beyond the Standard Model, up at Harvard. Yes, I'm becoming a Harvard student. This is slightly angering. I'm not mad at Harvard or myself, but really MIT and the CTP - they just didn't offer any extra particle physics courses this fall. Next week also marks the begining of the study group for the Part III exam. And I need to find a research advisor. I feel like if I can get out of this term hitting my goals, then everything else will fall into place. But I've felt like that the last 2 years here. I keep meeting my goals, but more keep showing up. Where's the finish line? I suppose that's the PhD thing they keep talking about...

Canto XI

Profootball time! I know everyone is as excited as I am...

The Jets won, despite CBS' efforts to destroy my life. So I watched the Bills-Pats game, which ended in predictable fashion after Buffalo was looking frisky for a little while. They then cut to the Broncos-Rams game, when Denver was driving down by 8 late in the 4th quarter. When Jake threw his 3rd INT of the game, they decided to let this one go as well. After some studio banter, they went to the Jets-Titans game, where the Jets are up by 7 with the Titans in possesion and driving with under 2 minutes to go. They pick up one first down. Then another. So now there's 40-some-odd seconds left and the Titans are at the Jets 12 yard line with a first down and one timeout. Then...

I don't know what happened. CBS cut away saying that due to contractual obligations, they were not allowed to show the end of the game!!! WTF?!? Does the NFL really contractually obligate the willful destruction of it's fan base? So they went back to the studio where Bryant Gumble would try and give a play-by-play (not his strong suit), which would then be followed up by a replay immediatly after the play was over. Why is this allowed but, you know, showing the freakin' game, isn't? Two dump off passes, then two imcompletes, and the Chad Pennington comeback has officially begun. I'm quietly optimistic, although this team is really a wait-for-next year team.

Not much to say about the games. A few upsets here and there. I'm most impressed with the Ravens. I have them as a wild card, but boy if that kind of play keeps up, they might be looking at a bye week in January. Denver stunk it up for the second year in a row to start off, but I wouldn't write them off just yet. And how 'bout them Panthers. No Steve Smith, no W. I'm pretty convinced that he should have been MVP last season. Since he didn't, that means WR can't win the award. Plenty of other good games, including one that apparently involved brothers or something like that.

Canto X

College Football time! It was a full day of action, and I didn't miss much of it...

Games I watched: Massachusetts Maritime Academy @ MIT (19-0), Penn State @ Notre Dame (17-41), Clemson @ Boston College (33-34), Minnesota @ California (17-42), Ohio State @ Texas (27-7), Oregon @ Fresno State (31-24).

1) MIT lost their home opener 19-0. I only caught the second half due to a late brunch, but apparently the first half was much better. Twice inside the 5 yard line and they couldn't finish. Shut out at home, that hurts. MIT, we must protect this house!
2) Penn State had their chances and blew them all in the first half. Midway through the 2nd quarter ND found their rythem and it was over in the 3rd. Not a good showing from the Nittany Lions. Not sure how much this tells us about Notre Dame, though since fumble recoveries are random and they all went NDs way early. How is this team any different from Texas Tech last year? Lots of offense, spotty defense that will surprise at times but is really just average. The Michigan game next week will tell me a lot more. Also, for Penn State, the announcers kept raving about #2 Williams as a great athlete, but he just screwed up any time he took the snap as part of a mix-up sceme on offense, and dropped several key passes including one for TD. Why is this guy so special?
3) Clemson should have won this game, but a few key mistakes kept the game close, it went to OT, and blocked PAT decided it. I met some Clemson fans on the T in the morning, it's going to be a long trip back to South Carolina today...
4) The Bears made plenty of mistakes early, but finally showed why they actually deserved to be ranked. The offense looked like a Tedford offense of old, the defense played up to the hype, only giving up 2 drives for a TD and FG (and the opening one for TD was a blown assignment on the first play from scrimmage resulting in a ~50 yard gain). The Bears will be getting a lot better and will challenge for the Pac-10 title. The Tennessee game will be seen as an abberation due to a young team going on the road in a hostile environment. In other news, the Gophers finally played a team not in the bottom 20 (or D-IAA) for a non-conference game. Their big knock (similar to Kansas State) the last few years has been the cream puff 3-0 and 4-0 non-conference schedule. Here's betting Glen Mason doesn't do that again.
5) The game of the weekend didn't really live up to the hype in my mind. It wasn't a bad game, but no one will be calling this the game of the season. Two trips to the red zone by Texas resulted in a lost fumble and what should have been a FG turned into a TD by a questionable roughing the passer penalty. That was the best they could do. The Buckeyes are looking pretty good this season, and the offense stayed in control most of the game. Texas without Vince Young will go back to the Mack Brown teams of old: 10 or 11 wins and choking away the big ones. Enjoy last season Longhorn fans, it was pretty special.

Before we get to the Ducks, something for some of my Big Ten friends. Illinois got waxed by the State College of New Jersey 33-0 while Northwestern lost 34-17 in their home opener against... D-IAA University of New Hampshire (Wildcats Vs. Mildcats!). I'm not sure which is worse. I've got to say the the Big Ten is looking a little top-heavy, but I'll hold off judgement for a few more weeks. Not too many other games to comment on except for the two near-upset let-down games by Tennessee and FSU. Soclose. And UW hanging tough against Oklahoma. Nice try Huskies.

6) Last but not least, the Ducks. I was pretty nervous about this game. I think everyone knows what Fresno can do at home, and you have to worry about how much everyone is thinking about Oklahome next week. Of course, the big play was the fake field goal. Great call. When they lined up for the FG, I was a little angry about not going for it to really give themselves a cushion or at least pinned Fresno deep. But then the miracle happened. I guess this was an "audible" by Brady Leaf - he read the defense and if they were overloaded he could pick it up and run with it since they had blocked an earlier attempt - the only problem is he's the only one who knows! Martinez didn't even know what was going to happen until it was happening. If you look at the replays he takes 2 steps as part of his normal wind up, then realizes that he better start running the other way to score the TD! Great call, great execution, and a great win for the Ducks. Bellotti's Bag-o-Tricks comes through in the clutch. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, even at 2am my heart was pounding for that last hail mary. By the way, good use of the clock by Pat Hill at the end - the Ducks should have realized he was going to do everything he could to win and kept pushing the ball.
Now for more Duck stuff. The offense still doesn't look in-sync. It was like this last year the first few games. Some key drops also hurt. The announcers kept raving about the depth at the reciever position the Ducks have, but the reason they're so deep is because they're all mediocre. Williams led the team, but even he had some key drops (one would have been a first down and the other was a touchdown). There's really no stand-out guy, and I think that's going to hurt the Ducks. Stewart being out also didn't help, but Johnson wasn't bad. I'm not a big fan of the spread offense, especially because it doesn't use a tight end much (although they finally seem to have found some kind of role for Rosario). But 31 points will win you a lot of games, so lets hope they keep progressing. The denfense really needs some help stopping the run. We all knew they were going to miss Haloti, but watching Wright churn out the yards was really frustrating. We got them to 3rd down plenty of times, but just couldn't get off the damn field. But when you look at the numbers, it wasn't that bad. One long run by Wright was the biggest play given up all game (40 yards), and if you take that away Wright and the team as a whole only averaged 4 yards a carry and 4.5 yards per pass. That's not terrible against the run and phenomenal against the pass, they just need to work on their 3rd down defense: Fresno converted on 9-17 and went 1-2 on 4th down. Thats better than 50%, when it should be something like 30-40%. Aliotti has always been a stop-the-run-first kind of guy, so you better believe he'll be working on this over the week getting ready for Adrian Peterson. It also seems the Ducks are a little dinged up (Bates, Stewart, Strong), so hopefully everyone will be ready for next Saturday's big home match up. This opening is one of the hardest I've seen by the Ducks. After opening in-conference, on the road against Fresno, Oklahoma, road games at ASU and Cal, then UCLA at home. Wow. They're all winnable, but that's one tough schedule. The second half is a lot easier in theory, but features all our Northwest rivals and on the road against USC. And we don't have a bye week. What's our AD doing to these kids?

Okay, that turned out to be way more than I expected... Sorry about that.

Canto IX

Last night's game wasn't the best NFL game I've ever seen, but it was the first of the new season! I'm really not a fan of Willie Parker. He ended up with 4 ypc average, but he really wasn't running all that well until the 4th quarter. Just too many 3 yards or less carries. If it weren't for the 30 yard break earlier, those stats wouldn't be nearly as nice. That's the problem with backs like this, they'll tease you with a few big bursts, but really they aren't doing very much to help the offense. Of course, the Steelers just picked up Najeh Davenport as their "#2" back. But the sooner they get Ben back, the better. Then I'll have some faith in their offense. Miami will get better as well, and Nick Saban may even learn how to challenge better. Not that I saw much point to that challenge since it would have been 1st and goal from the 1 yard line. It just would have taken more time off the clock. The story of the game should really be Culpepper literally throwing away victory.

Oregon State got creamed by Boise State on the blue turf. The Pac-10 is really not looking so hot right now... Oregon better put on a good show at Fresno State, and Cal needs to redeem themselves against Minnesota. I don't mind if UW gets destroyed by Oklahoma, though. Those guys just suck.

Rarely has a comic more accurately portrayed my life.

Canto VIII

Today we went on a balloon ride in the city, called Aeroballoon. It's tag line was "Defy Gravity". I don't think I want to defy gravity. After all the GR reading this summer, I have a new found appreciation for gravity on all scales. And it keeps me safe, including ensuring our atmosphere stays attatched to the Earth. Plus, I thought the principles of bouyancy were pretty well understood? Is this really defiance on the part of us mere mortals, or just explotation of a loophole? Don't thumb your nose lightly at laws of nature!

There was a WMAP colloquium today. It's good stuff. The most I got from it (the plots were rather confusing I felt) was that the data requires cold Dark Matter. The first round of WMAP data left some room for alternative theories, but the new constraints on the data (especially the l=2 "anomaly" from before) don't leave much wiggle room. So I guess it turns out the rotation curves were right after all. He also talked a lot about the polarization part of it, but this doesn't seem to be limiting much yet, and it's my understanding the WMAP won't be able to do much in this area. I'm sure they would disagree, but I didn't follow all that well during this part of the talk so I can't say for sure. I'm very excited for PLANCK, which is designed to improve the WMAP measurements and specifically look at the polarization of the CMB.

Tonight is the opening night for the NFL, the 'Fins at the Steelers. I'm rooting for the Steelers, but I'm just excited that football is back! I'm going over to a friends house for some beer, pizza and the game. Yes!

Canto VII

Pro Football Predictions!

Here's a quick list of my picks for winners this year. I'm curious to see how it pans out.

AFC
West: Denver Broncos (12-4)
Still the best team here. Chargers may see some improvement with an easier schedule, but they will also be starting a new quarterback. If Drew Brees were still taking the snaps I think I would be picking the Bolts. KC's offense, even with LJ, will see a dramatic decline as age, injuries and retirements take their toll. The Raiders will lead the league in penalties.

South: Indianapolis Colts (13-3)
Again, still the best team. I don't think Jacksonville will compete with a tougher schedule (they were rather lucky to go 12-4 last year) and finishes a dissapointing 9-7 this year. The Titans and Texans both have a long road ahead.

North: Pittsburgh Steelers (11-5)
Not much change from last season. But then again, the top teams didn't have enough happen to make me question their playoff potential, and the teams at the bottom have a lot to do to prove themselves. This division probably has the most interesting questions around it. Will Big Ben be ready to play at the level he was at to close the season (Superbowl excluded)? And will Carson Palmer play at the level of last year or two years ago? Will Steve McNair finally give the Ravens any semblance of an offense? And the Browns behind Charlie Frye are looking a little frisky, with the exception of their centers.

East: New England Patriots (11-5)
Still the best of the division, but the Dolphins will be making gains on them this season. The Pats defense should be better than last year, but I just don't think it will be good enough to get past the divisional round of the playoffs. The Jets and Bills... Well, at least the Jets seem to be building towards the future, not sure you can say that about the Bills.

Wild Card: Baltimore Ravens (10-6) and Miami Dolphins (10-6).
Really no team is perfect in the NFL, and both of these teams have their share of question marks, but the only other teams I really see competing for a playoff berth are the Chargers, Bengals and Jaguars. The AFC is really full of Haves and Have-Nots. Parity, RIP.

NFC
West: Seattle Seahawks (13-3)
Finally breaking the Superbowl Losers curse. The 49ers and Rams are not good football teams, and while the Cardinals may be moving into the vicinity of actual professional football play, the offensive line needs a lot of improvement. Good luck, Edge. You're going to need it, given the only way you're going to be able to find a hole there is by taking a shovel into your backyard.

South: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (12-4)
Everyone is high on the Panthers, and I'm making them a wild card team, but I think the Bucs were looking pretty good by the end of the season, and if Chris Sims keeps progressing the offense will be alright. The defense is OLD, but should be able to make it one or two more seasons before completely hitting the wall. The Falcons are making some improvements, but I don't really trust Micheal Vick as a QB and their run defense is still extremely suspect. The Saints will have a few highlight reel screen passes to Reggie Bush to brighten an otherwise abysmal season.

North: Chicago Bears (12-4)
Someone has to win this division. The defense is the same as last year, and the offense can't be any worse than it was, so they should repeat. The Lions are looking to improve everything, and they may, but they still will have a hard time clearing 7 wins. The Packers are in a similar situation. The Vikings looked good down the stretch thanks to an easy schedule, but haven't done enough to improve into a playoff contender.

East: Philadelphia Eagles (11-5)
Lots of questions about their offense, especially the recievers, but they'll be back from first-to worst-to first. The Cowboys made some moves, and I think even with their offensive line questions will be a good team. The Redskins keep doing a salary cap dance, but will it really translate into some playoff wins? Eli Manning is another QB I'm just not sold on yet, and as he goes, so go the Giants.

Wild Card: Carolina Panthers (11-5) and Arizona Cardinals (10-6)
The Cards win a tie-breaker with the 10-6 Redskins to scratch their way into the playoffs.

And now for the whole tamale...

Super Bowl: Indianapolis Colts defeat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27-17.
Does the Dungy/Manning effect finally wear off this year?

Canto VI

So how about our most recent adventure in Chicago? We visited an old friend of mine, Nels, and his wife Val and got to check out the city. Walked around downtown and saw Millenium Park with the cool Bean. If you've never been, it's a highly reflective bean-shaped object. It's really cool. Although I really enjoyed looking at the sidewalk grid projected onto the Bean. It's not an isomorphism (there were points that seemed jumpy, but that may have been the lighting), it's still very smooth and beautiful. Also did two architecture tours of some of the famous buildings and Frank Lloyd Wright homes there. No, we did not go to the top of the Sears Tower or the Hancock Tower. But we did see them. Steph did not remember her Married... With Children, which features Buckingham Fountain in the opening credits. It was like my Graceland.

Our hosts were gracious enough to show us an all-you-can-eat sushi place (really just Maki, the rolls). With 5 people there, we were able to polish off 20 rolls. Keep in mind that one person gave up after only 2 1/2 rolls and Val quit after 3 rolls or so. Even Steph gave up after 4. It was up to Nels and me to make it to 20 rolls, and we did. I'm not sure I really remember any taste difference between the later rolls, but it was all good.

I don't know if I'm the only one who, after using chop sticks for an hour, wants to give up and just dive in with my hands. It seems that chop sticks only take away from your fingers, down from 5 to 2. At least with a spoon you can scoop better than with your hands, a knife cuts things your nails might not be able to, and the fork is able to spear things and bring them to your mouth. Really, at some point in the future our descendants will decide that KFC was onto something with the spork and just go with that, with one side sharpened to cut things. What can you do with chop sticks? You can't cut or scoop with them, and it's bad etiquette to stab things with them. It seems that they only take away from the food-to-mouth delivery system.

We also went to the Green Mill bar, where Slam Poetry was invented. From what I had heard about it, it was roughly what I expected but that meant it was a lot of fun. Someone got snapped off stage, The Wierd Sisters were hilarious and $10 was won (not by me). Frankly Nels, you made Chicago too much fun and now I want to go back and stay with you guys again.

Canto V

Must do better about posting. But I figure football season should give me enough material to talk about. I'm even thinking about doing some college football rankings in a few weeks once the season has settled in (starting maybe a week before the first BCS rankings). I think it's crazy they have preseason rankings. What's the point? To measure who had the best and worst off-season?

Anyway, my friend Dave also blogs here and after an amusing anecdote, I now feel the need to compete in the blogosphere.

Not much news to report. It was a busy summer (well, that should make for a lot of news, but it's surprising how few people find stories about shopping at Bed, Bath & Beyond interesting). There were trips back to Portland, to Connecticut, Chicago, New York and all around town. I had a great time, and if I had been activly blogging you would have heard all about it. School-wise can't say I did much. We formed a GR reading group and I learned a bunch about gravity, but that's about it.

Right now, the only thing I have to say about football is that the Ducks looked decent in the opener, and if the defense comes together like it did last year, it should be a good year. I was also drinking the Cal kool-aid, but it looks like the QB stuggles will continue and so will the team.

Canto IV

So it's been a busy week. First off, let me just say: SNOW! The blizzard on sunday was a lot of fun. The snow was great to play in, nice and soft. Stephanie and I went walking around and saw all the people sledding and snowboarding. Although the snowboarding was stretching it a bit. Good times were had by all, then we came home and had some hot chocolate. Not too shabby.

But then the week started. Of course, the T broke down on monday. So it was cold, and we had to walk in to Kenmore from somewhere around BU. Steph left earlier than I did, thinking the snow was going to make the T late. But this wasn't the snow, apparently the brakes weren't working on one of the trains or something. So despite me leaving 15 minutes after she did, we ended up meeting at Kenmore station, each hating the green line in our own way. Stupid green line. I had aggreed a few weeks ago to give a talk on friday, and hadn't really started it yet. Suddenly I found myself a few days away from giving a talk in front of the whole CTP and nothing to say. Fortunately, it was on experimental particle physics, so I figured I could wing it decently. Classes are now in full swing and homework is being assigned. In fact I'm avoiding doing my QFT homework to write this. I'm really trying to schedule my time better this term. I did last term fairly well. I'm just getting started and I already feel like there's too much going on. But I think this last week was atypical due to the talk.

Stephanie and I avoided the whole Valentine's Day thing. We just decided that tuesday night isn't good for anybody to do anything, so we went out friday night. And despite my best efforts to remember to get her flowers, I totally forgot on friday. But she made up for it in spades. I came home to a bunch of flowers already waiting for me. I appreciate the effort, although my affection for flowers is pretty muted. We went out for japanese, the food was good, but I would give the atmosphere a C.

Anyway, the week's been busy with classes, TA stuff (I don't think anyone is going to use the tutoring hours I have set up - it's just a colossal waste of my time), some good talks, and getting ready for my talk. The colloquium on thursday was on how stalactites (the ones that hang down) get their shape. It was a really interesting talk. One of the better talks I've been to, especially given it was mostly geophysics and geochemistry.

Anyway, by wednesday I had an outline in my mind for how I wanted to give my talk. But nothing written. That night I was talking to Steph about it, and I had a different idea, and decided to completely redo it (although I hadn't written anything down, I did know roughly what I was going to say). I decided to give a historical perspective on how particle detection works. So thursday I went in and looked up all the original papers on some famous physics experiments. It was a lot of fun to read them. That night, once the Daily Show was over, I started writing it all out. Like I said, though, I usually know what I'm going to say about all these different things, I just need the little details correct. I was only up until 1 (1 1/2 hours to write a 1 hour talk - plus all that research and thinking). The next morning I went over it again and looked up some other stuff to add on. I had a morning class from 10-11 and I was talking to the professor as we were walking over and he was surprised that I was going to class because he knew I was giving a talk. Long story short (made long by all this build up), the talk went pretty well. And I ended right on time, which I consider to be the most important thing. Although there were no questions. That can only mean: 1) no one cared in the least, 2) everyone was asleep from eating (it's a lunch talk) 3) it all went right over everyone's head, 4) I was going too fast and didn't let them get a word in edge-wise, or 5) it was so great and perfectly explained that there was no need for questions. My thinking is some mixture of 1, 2 and 4. But everyone afterwards was positive, but what can they say? That sucked and you're never allowed to give a talk again?

The best thing that came out of this was the fact that one of the professors I've been trying to meet (our paths never quite crossed in the last three weeks), came up afterwards and we met for a little while to discuss research. He's working on string theory in black holes, which I think in pretty cool and something I'm definitely interested in. There are a few more profs I want to talk to, but this is promising. So now I'm back at work, not working. We did all the shopping for the week today, and even did some grocery shopping, so I'm considering today to be a success, independent of any homework completion. Hopefully next week is a little bit calmer, it's only 4 days long after all.

The beard is surprisingly warm.  

Here I am at the Family Christmas Party. 

Canto III

So now for something that's been going on this last week. I just found out one of my best friends bought a house. Which is fantastic! I'm really happy for him and his wife. But this now makes a disturbing trend of people I grew up with buying houses and here we are, stuck in Boston with it's ridiculously high housing market. And we're only going to be here for another 3 1/2 years or so, if all goes to plan. So it doesn't make much sense to buy a house, even if we could afford it (which we can't). I never bought into the "keeping up with the Jones'" thing, but then again I've never been fully employed with a wife until rather recently. I'm not sure it's jealousy - I'm not jealous at anyone in particular, just the state of home-ownership. I really just miss the feeling of "this is all mine, my own little castle". I haven't really felt it since I finally got my own room at 13, and lost after I went to college. Maybe it's just the fact that the title for the person we pay rent to is "Landlord" - I thought serfdom went out with the industrial revolution?

Canto II

So now a little about myself. I'm a 2nd year physics graduate student at MIT. This is probably the biggest thing that I would associate myself with. When I think of myself, I think of physics. I was an undergrad at the University of Oregon and majored in both Physics and Mathematics. I've known since I was about 5 years old that I wanted to be someone who worked with all those sub-atomic particles. It was always so fascinating with all the quarks and protons and other nuclear brickabrack. High school had it's shortcomings for me in a myrid of ways so I took a year off, and went to the big public university. From the first day I got to campus, though, I knew what I wanted to do. I must say that knowing exactly what I want to do is the greatest luxury I enjoy. After freshman year (with all those stupid core classes taken care of), I took nothing but physics and math classes. I worked in the physics department. My girlfriend and now wife was a physics major as well. I really couldn't get enough of it. But my interest was in particle physics. I want to know how the universe(s) really works at it's most basic level. While there, I worked in a high-energy physics (HEP) lab. And when it came time to apply to graduate school, I applied in both theory and experimental HEP. The best places I got into were for experimental HEP, so that's what I stayed with. But I love theory too much. I love thinking about how the universe works. This last semester I switched over from the experimental group to the Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP). I couldn't be happier. I'm living my physics dream I've had since I was 5 years old. I don't have an advisor yet and I'm not entirely sure which specific field I want to work in yet. (Hence, Purgatory, but most of Grad School is like that in some ways.) I think String Theory, but I'm just starting to learn about it "for reals" now, so we'll see how this pans out. Right now my child-like enthusiasm is keeping me strong.

Other things that define "me". I got married last year and it's wonderful. Although since we lived together for so long before getting married, our relationship didn't change much. I wear a ring now, which is fun to fidget with when I'm nervous or bored. Also, when I open a door and hear it 'clink' against the metal, I smile a little bit thinking about her. We had a great wedding, but it's been 8 months and still haven't finished getting the photo album together or getting the pictures ready to give people. Maybe for the first anniversary... By the way, her name is Stephanie (Steph), for future reference.

I love football, both college and the NFL. Being an U of O alum, I have to say that Autzen Stadium is home to some of my favorite sports memories. I miss being able to go to those games on saturday afternoon. The other favorites come from childhood, Little League and soccer. I'm looking forward to living vicariously through my kids in that department. The NY Jets are "my" pro team, here's to hoping they put a team out there that's more fun to watch next year. Football is really the only sport I pay much attention to. I watch SportsCenter in the mornings as I eat my cereal to catch the highlights of everything else, but that's about it.

I'm a western european fan. Not the modern stuff. I read classical works (>500 years old, preferrably). I consider Dante's La Divina Commedia to be the crowning acheivement of our civilization. A complete theory of the universe may overtake this in my mind, but for now I tip my cap. And history. I have favorite historical figures ranging from Charlemagne to Pericles. But again, I stick to the west. I said that after my freshman year I took only math & physics, but I did sit in on several history and literature classes. It didn't matter how busy I was, I made time to learn more about Rome, Greek Poets and early middle ages France.

My iPod is my constant companion. Mostly rock with the lion's share in classic with some 90's stuff and others mixed in. I was just saying to Steph that I need to work on beefing up the collection...

Anyway, I'm sure plenty more details will pour out as this continues.

A First Shout Into The Void

Well, this is my first blog posting. I never kept a diary when I was growing up or really kept up with writing in any way. About the longest I sustained a writing excersize was keeping a journal while I toured Europe after high school. That was for 3 months, off-and-on, but managed to do every day or three. So it will be interesting how long I keep this up. Part of me always feels like this is something really important I should do for myself, my family & friends and my (future) kids. My grandfather from my Mom's side wrote his memoirs and my mom is really glad to have them. But this is nicer in the sense that it's real-time and not filtered (as much). But then there's the part of me that feels that nothing all that interesting happens to me, and why bother writing about nothing?