Two in a row, baby! I felt this was funny enough to be it's own post, so if you haven't been here in a while, there's another new one right below this. This one is courtesy of my brother.
Here's a link to a Guitar Hero III review.
And the link to his whole repertoire if you're so inclined.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Canto LXXII
So after that flurry of activity, only to use up all my good material. But now I'm like the Phoenix, to be reborn after burning through all my stuff. So here's another quick-hit list of stuff that's been happening in the Land of Eric.
Yes, the ring is still broken. It's a little weird, but I think I'm just going to keep it that way. It is, after all, my wedding rings, chips and all.
A couple weeks ago, Steph and I saw a Who tribute band called Slip Kid with some friends of ours. They were a lot of fun! Just an all-out show. But it was up in Arlington, so the crowd was a little subdued, which is a little disappointing. The opening act was a solo performance by a David Bowie cover man. That was also pretty fun. The funny thing was after the concert I wanted to listen to David Bowie for the next few days, not The Who. I think it's just because I have all The Who stuff memorized, while David Bowie is only somewhat familiar with. I knew all the songs and such, but it's not ingrained in my memory like Tommy, Who's Next, A Quick One, My Generation, Quadrophenia, etc. is. And as a somewhat related side note, I couldn't be more excited for Who's Next on Rock Band. (I know I mentioned this a while ago, but it bears repeating.)
In other news, Stephanie and I are going on our Honeymoon! Yes, that's right 3+ years into our marriage, we'll be making our way to Belize for a week at the end of summer. We just bought the plane tickets and a guide book. Now it's the planning stages, like how many pieces of coral is it OK to steal and what's the most valuable ancient Mayan artifact that I could conceivably smuggle back into the States? We're both really excited. Not that our original Honeymoon on the Oregon Coast wasn't fun, but somewhere tropical sounds so nice.
There was a Cinco de Mayo party we went to, with much debauchery. Of course, any party where I end up on the floor while another man pours alcohol down my throat to 'finish it off' is perhaps a bit more than I'm used to. But good times were had by all (minimal hangover), and there was of course, more Rock Band. Cause that's how they do it in Mexico.
Also this last week I did some grading to earn a little extra cash, which will be applied to the aforementioned Belize trip. It was a bunch of papers for students of our quantum mechanics classes, and overall they were OK. I did this last year as well, and I think that group was better. Oh well.
Dates. I've been eating a lot of dates lately, and they're delicious. Everyone should go out and try some right now. But I don't see them on Syd's food chart... I'm not sure if I had ever really had them before this, but now that I have, it's all I ever want to eat again. Well, not really, but I have been eating a whole bunch of them the last couple weeks.
We saw Iron Man last night. It was pretty good, if you're into superhero action movies. And Robert Downey, Jr. is perfect for Tony Stark. A fun time.
I played basketball for the first time in my adult life last week. It turns out I suck at it. But then again, I don't think I've played since freshman year of high school in gym class. Suffice to say, I got taken to school. And now the guy who set this up wants me to come out to play so he can humiliate me again. Fun times, but I may do it anyway. It's good to get out of the office every now and again.
Our frisbee team ended the season 1-4, with our sole victory coming off a forfeit this final weekend. I don't think we're going to make the playoffs. And to think that last year we were a Juggernaut that went undefeated and made it to the quarterfinals. But again, it's good to get out of the office, especially when the weather's halfway decent.
Okay, and the last thing. I've been wasting most of my time lately playing some video games. This is somewhat rare for me, since after finally beating Zelda earlier this year, I just look at FF XII and think to myself no fucking way am I ever going to beat that game. Actually that's not true, I could beat it relatively quickly (<10-15 hours), but it would not be to my Emerald Weapon completionist satisfaction, which means an ungodly number of hours sunk into it. But after we got our new computer up and running, we looked through all the old software and stuff we wanted to install. And there was Diablo II. Now the graphics definitely don't hold up, but it's still a fun game. And I've been obsessed with it lately. Like every night when I get home, I play for an hour. Just to get my fix. It's very sad. And the problem is, with no really clearly defined ending, it just keeps going. You're always thinking how can I make my character just a little bit better? Where's the next way point? And this is why I don't play WOW. But now I feel bad, because one of you out there might read this post, think to themselves I haven't played that in forever, and give it a try. Well let me tell you, does a recovering crack addict tell themselves one little hit won't hurt them? Don't touch it unless you know you can stop anytime. But of course, if you do start playing again, let me know and we can meet on the open battle.net realm somewhere.
Yes, the ring is still broken. It's a little weird, but I think I'm just going to keep it that way. It is, after all, my wedding rings, chips and all.
A couple weeks ago, Steph and I saw a Who tribute band called Slip Kid with some friends of ours. They were a lot of fun! Just an all-out show. But it was up in Arlington, so the crowd was a little subdued, which is a little disappointing. The opening act was a solo performance by a David Bowie cover man. That was also pretty fun. The funny thing was after the concert I wanted to listen to David Bowie for the next few days, not The Who. I think it's just because I have all The Who stuff memorized, while David Bowie is only somewhat familiar with. I knew all the songs and such, but it's not ingrained in my memory like Tommy, Who's Next, A Quick One, My Generation, Quadrophenia, etc. is. And as a somewhat related side note, I couldn't be more excited for Who's Next on Rock Band. (I know I mentioned this a while ago, but it bears repeating.)
In other news, Stephanie and I are going on our Honeymoon! Yes, that's right 3+ years into our marriage, we'll be making our way to Belize for a week at the end of summer. We just bought the plane tickets and a guide book. Now it's the planning stages, like how many pieces of coral is it OK to steal and what's the most valuable ancient Mayan artifact that I could conceivably smuggle back into the States? We're both really excited. Not that our original Honeymoon on the Oregon Coast wasn't fun, but somewhere tropical sounds so nice.
There was a Cinco de Mayo party we went to, with much debauchery. Of course, any party where I end up on the floor while another man pours alcohol down my throat to 'finish it off' is perhaps a bit more than I'm used to. But good times were had by all (minimal hangover), and there was of course, more Rock Band. Cause that's how they do it in Mexico.
Also this last week I did some grading to earn a little extra cash, which will be applied to the aforementioned Belize trip. It was a bunch of papers for students of our quantum mechanics classes, and overall they were OK. I did this last year as well, and I think that group was better. Oh well.
Dates. I've been eating a lot of dates lately, and they're delicious. Everyone should go out and try some right now. But I don't see them on Syd's food chart... I'm not sure if I had ever really had them before this, but now that I have, it's all I ever want to eat again. Well, not really, but I have been eating a whole bunch of them the last couple weeks.
We saw Iron Man last night. It was pretty good, if you're into superhero action movies. And Robert Downey, Jr. is perfect for Tony Stark. A fun time.
I played basketball for the first time in my adult life last week. It turns out I suck at it. But then again, I don't think I've played since freshman year of high school in gym class. Suffice to say, I got taken to school. And now the guy who set this up wants me to come out to play so he can humiliate me again. Fun times, but I may do it anyway. It's good to get out of the office every now and again.
Our frisbee team ended the season 1-4, with our sole victory coming off a forfeit this final weekend. I don't think we're going to make the playoffs. And to think that last year we were a Juggernaut that went undefeated and made it to the quarterfinals. But again, it's good to get out of the office, especially when the weather's halfway decent.
Okay, and the last thing. I've been wasting most of my time lately playing some video games. This is somewhat rare for me, since after finally beating Zelda earlier this year, I just look at FF XII and think to myself no fucking way am I ever going to beat that game. Actually that's not true, I could beat it relatively quickly (<10-15 hours), but it would not be to my Emerald Weapon completionist satisfaction, which means an ungodly number of hours sunk into it. But after we got our new computer up and running, we looked through all the old software and stuff we wanted to install. And there was Diablo II. Now the graphics definitely don't hold up, but it's still a fun game. And I've been obsessed with it lately. Like every night when I get home, I play for an hour. Just to get my fix. It's very sad. And the problem is, with no really clearly defined ending, it just keeps going. You're always thinking how can I make my character just a little bit better? Where's the next way point? And this is why I don't play WOW. But now I feel bad, because one of you out there might read this post, think to themselves I haven't played that in forever, and give it a try. Well let me tell you, does a recovering crack addict tell themselves one little hit won't hurt them? Don't touch it unless you know you can stop anytime. But of course, if you do start playing again, let me know and we can meet on the open battle.net realm somewhere.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Canto LXXI
So there's a few things that I want to post about, but the first thing is going to be about my wedding ring. I love my wedding ring. Of course, I love the person that I'm married to, so that helps. But it's a beautiful ring. It's a tungsten ring inlaid with a band of gold. It's suppose to be nigh-invulnerable. It's made of freaking tungsten carbide! They make drills that go through steel out of this stuff. And mine broke. Seriously. Here's the photo.
I don't know how it happened. I was watching How I Met Your Mother last night and playing with it on my hand. Then it felt a little funny so I looked down, and there was this crack! And notice that the gold part is OK, it's just the tungsten. I really don't get it. I'm not a superstitious person, but this is a little weird.
I'm watching the Red Sox play the Angels right now, and Youk just hit a 2-run home run over the Monster to tie the game. That's not the interesting part, though. The man who caught the ball was balding, but still had a mitt. And not just any mitt. A pink mitt. Seriously. And I don't care if his wife had breast cancer and he bought this to support research. You're a grown man at the ball park. Already you shouldn't be bringing your mitt, and to top it off a pink one? I thought Boston was a tough town. Of course, the people who can afford Monster seats aren't exactly the most blue-collar. And Jacoby Ellsbury of Madras, OR hit his second home run of the night. Not bad. Did you know Madras is south of Portland?
So this weekend was a little crazy. Just lots of stuff to do. But it was all fun. Plenty of free food, played some Rock Band, went to my first Seder, frisbee. Just a fun time. And there was also the Smoking Club. This is a group of a half-dozen of us enjoying the finer things in life. Like a fine smoke and some Bocce Ball. It was a great afternoon on Marathon Monday.
And to end this post, something funny from last friday. My rather italian officemate came in friday morning and said 'You're a fan of The Who?' It just so happened that I was wearing my Who t-shirt that very day, and he noticed. This was followed up with him saying how much he enjoyed listening to them. He's a huge classical music fan, so this was a bit of a surprise, but The Who are awesome, and had now won a new fan. I felt compelled to find out more. So it turns out he discovered them the previous weekend. But what was the song or album that made him such a fan? Quadrophenia. No joke. I immediately asked if he had heard, you know, My Generation, Tommy, Who's Next. Nope, nope, nope. I gave him all the above, and let him know if he liked those to come back for some more.
UPDATE: So I went to the store where we bought our wedding rings. It turns out the company that made our indestructible rings, and thus guaranteed them, went under. Bankrupt. They no longer exist. Therefore we won't be getting a new ring from them any time soon. What the hell. The guy was kind of funny about it, and they said they can give me a good deal on a new ring (Hah!), but I was SOL about the ring. Shit.
I don't know how it happened. I was watching How I Met Your Mother last night and playing with it on my hand. Then it felt a little funny so I looked down, and there was this crack! And notice that the gold part is OK, it's just the tungsten. I really don't get it. I'm not a superstitious person, but this is a little weird.
I'm watching the Red Sox play the Angels right now, and Youk just hit a 2-run home run over the Monster to tie the game. That's not the interesting part, though. The man who caught the ball was balding, but still had a mitt. And not just any mitt. A pink mitt. Seriously. And I don't care if his wife had breast cancer and he bought this to support research. You're a grown man at the ball park. Already you shouldn't be bringing your mitt, and to top it off a pink one? I thought Boston was a tough town. Of course, the people who can afford Monster seats aren't exactly the most blue-collar. And Jacoby Ellsbury of Madras, OR hit his second home run of the night. Not bad. Did you know Madras is south of Portland?
So this weekend was a little crazy. Just lots of stuff to do. But it was all fun. Plenty of free food, played some Rock Band, went to my first Seder, frisbee. Just a fun time. And there was also the Smoking Club. This is a group of a half-dozen of us enjoying the finer things in life. Like a fine smoke and some Bocce Ball. It was a great afternoon on Marathon Monday.
And to end this post, something funny from last friday. My rather italian officemate came in friday morning and said 'You're a fan of The Who?' It just so happened that I was wearing my Who t-shirt that very day, and he noticed. This was followed up with him saying how much he enjoyed listening to them. He's a huge classical music fan, so this was a bit of a surprise, but The Who are awesome, and had now won a new fan. I felt compelled to find out more. So it turns out he discovered them the previous weekend. But what was the song or album that made him such a fan? Quadrophenia. No joke. I immediately asked if he had heard, you know, My Generation, Tommy, Who's Next. Nope, nope, nope. I gave him all the above, and let him know if he liked those to come back for some more.
UPDATE: So I went to the store where we bought our wedding rings. It turns out the company that made our indestructible rings, and thus guaranteed them, went under. Bankrupt. They no longer exist. Therefore we won't be getting a new ring from them any time soon. What the hell. The guy was kind of funny about it, and they said they can give me a good deal on a new ring (Hah!), but I was SOL about the ring. Shit.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Canto LXX
I knew there was going to be at least one day that I missed. But seriously, at least I'm trying. I miss everyone!
Anyway, today I have a quick-hits thing in mind. A few paragraphs on several topics about things that have been going on lately.
First up, I got a hair cut. And trimmed the beard. You may have noticed that in the Lebowski pictures the beard was not it's full, disheveled self. But rather than just cutting it all at once (like last year), I decided to phase it out over the course of a week. Here's the link, I recommend the slideshow. Let me know which you like best. I think I preferred the Fu Manchu.
Part of the reason I missed posting yesterday has been how busy work has been these last few weeks. It's actually really exciting! I understand what I'm working on, can talk somewhat coherently about it, and I'm doing useful calculations that are advancing a possible new result in my field! I think this is really the first time I can say that. Also, meetings with my adviser and the post-doc I'm working with have been a lot of fun and very fruitful. I must say that this is the most excited about work I've been in a long time. But that excitement has led to long hours of late. Not necessarily a bad thing if it leads to a nice result and publication, but I do miss seeing Steph for dinner. Anyway, I'll let everyone know how it goes!
[For those interested, my research is on constructing an AdS background solution in Heterotic string theory. There is a "No-Go" theorem in this subject, but as physicists like to say, a no-go theorem really tells you exactly where to go. They usually say something like "If you do X, Y and Z, then you can't get a xylophone." But then you should just say to your self, 'If I don't use X (or Y or Z), then can I still get a marimba?' Just slightly tweaking the no-go result often causes it to give you something very similar to what you're looking for.]
I've also been watching less TV lately. The best sporting season (football) is over, I really only watch March Madness and some NBA playoffs in basketball, and I'll watch the Sox if a game's on and I'm not doing something else, but I don't obsess over it. But I have been watching 'The Big Bang Theory'. I feel really dirty doing it. Like, really dirty. It's a terrible 3-camera sitcom. Sadly placed next to one of the greatest 3-camera sitcoms of all time, How I Met Your Mother (which I recommend for everyone). I'm only watching it because there may never be another time where a television show is about theoretical physicists. But the various stereotypes are ridiculously bad. First, it should be pointed out that more than 1/3 of the graduate students in the CTP are married, and another 1/3 or so have significant others. [Small, but somewhat representative sampling: my office. 1 married, 1 engaged, 1 steady girlfriend (going out 1+ years), 1 single - with the singleton as a first year grad student.] So 4 single, can't-get-a-date grad students/post-docs is pretty rare. Maybe they congregate, but that's not really my experience. They also have 3 Americans and 1 Indian. While the 1 Indian is correct, 3 Americans not so much. More Europeans, more Chinese. They also assume that everyone is some kind of uber-nerd. Trust me when I say this is not the case. I don't know anyone here who role-plays, has an encyclopedic knowledge of comics, or knows any more about Star Wars than I do (that may not be saying that much). We're total geeks - as in we know way too much math & physics. We talk in physics, relating various things that have nothing to do with physics in terms of physics or math and then laugh about it. But the geekiness ends there. They do capture (somewhat) that aspect of our lives, but even then it's only half-assed. Anyway, hopefully the show will be canceled soon and I can be free from this misery. I'm sure I have more on this, but now I'm all worked up. I have to get back to my real physics work. To The Action, Jackson!
Anyway, today I have a quick-hits thing in mind. A few paragraphs on several topics about things that have been going on lately.
First up, I got a hair cut. And trimmed the beard. You may have noticed that in the Lebowski pictures the beard was not it's full, disheveled self. But rather than just cutting it all at once (like last year), I decided to phase it out over the course of a week. Here's the link, I recommend the slideshow. Let me know which you like best. I think I preferred the Fu Manchu.
Part of the reason I missed posting yesterday has been how busy work has been these last few weeks. It's actually really exciting! I understand what I'm working on, can talk somewhat coherently about it, and I'm doing useful calculations that are advancing a possible new result in my field! I think this is really the first time I can say that. Also, meetings with my adviser and the post-doc I'm working with have been a lot of fun and very fruitful. I must say that this is the most excited about work I've been in a long time. But that excitement has led to long hours of late. Not necessarily a bad thing if it leads to a nice result and publication, but I do miss seeing Steph for dinner. Anyway, I'll let everyone know how it goes!
[For those interested, my research is on constructing an AdS background solution in Heterotic string theory. There is a "No-Go" theorem in this subject, but as physicists like to say, a no-go theorem really tells you exactly where to go. They usually say something like "If you do X, Y and Z, then you can't get a xylophone." But then you should just say to your self, 'If I don't use X (or Y or Z), then can I still get a marimba?' Just slightly tweaking the no-go result often causes it to give you something very similar to what you're looking for.]
I've also been watching less TV lately. The best sporting season (football) is over, I really only watch March Madness and some NBA playoffs in basketball, and I'll watch the Sox if a game's on and I'm not doing something else, but I don't obsess over it. But I have been watching 'The Big Bang Theory'. I feel really dirty doing it. Like, really dirty. It's a terrible 3-camera sitcom. Sadly placed next to one of the greatest 3-camera sitcoms of all time, How I Met Your Mother (which I recommend for everyone). I'm only watching it because there may never be another time where a television show is about theoretical physicists. But the various stereotypes are ridiculously bad. First, it should be pointed out that more than 1/3 of the graduate students in the CTP are married, and another 1/3 or so have significant others. [Small, but somewhat representative sampling: my office. 1 married, 1 engaged, 1 steady girlfriend (going out 1+ years), 1 single - with the singleton as a first year grad student.] So 4 single, can't-get-a-date grad students/post-docs is pretty rare. Maybe they congregate, but that's not really my experience. They also have 3 Americans and 1 Indian. While the 1 Indian is correct, 3 Americans not so much. More Europeans, more Chinese. They also assume that everyone is some kind of uber-nerd. Trust me when I say this is not the case. I don't know anyone here who role-plays, has an encyclopedic knowledge of comics, or knows any more about Star Wars than I do (that may not be saying that much). We're total geeks - as in we know way too much math & physics. We talk in physics, relating various things that have nothing to do with physics in terms of physics or math and then laugh about it. But the geekiness ends there. They do capture (somewhat) that aspect of our lives, but even then it's only half-assed. Anyway, hopefully the show will be canceled soon and I can be free from this misery. I'm sure I have more on this, but now I'm all worked up. I have to get back to my real physics work. To The Action, Jackson!
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Canto LXIX
And we're back for another round! Today I want to talk a little about my favorite game in the whole world, Diplomacy. Next year is the 50th anniversary of the game, and a new board is suppose to be released, which is good since it's out-of-print right now. But the other news in the Diplomatic world is that there's now a Facebook application that lets you play games. This was really cool and exciting at first, but I must say that it's not as great as it sounds. I'll go over what I don't like first:
1) There are several key rules that are screwed up. First and foremost is that you can't support a convoy, i.e. you can't support a naval invasion a la D-Day. This is really crippling for England, since they're are going to have an impossible time getting past the stalemate lines fast enough. The program also doesn't recognize the difference between friend and foe units when adjudicating, so you can self-dislodge. There was a painful moment in my game where I was using that fact to defend a space only to be forced to retreat from my own units! Also, disbands are handled at the same time as builds, which really messes things up. I need to know what's on my borders before I know what I should build. Anyway, there are probably more issues as well that I just haven't run into yet. Very frustrating.
2) The game I'm playing in right now, I'm not close to any of the other players (either proximity or on a personal level except for one), so it's hard to conduct, you know, diplomacy. There's a forum for sending messages and stuff, but it's woefully underused. This game is ultimately about negotiating and finding ways to interact with your friends and enemies to advance your own interests.
Those are my two big points. But I'm glad that there's a new forum for people to get introduced to this game. It's a lot of fun, and the more the merrier. But hopefully someone can work on this and make a better application.
With that said, I want to set up a play-by-e-mail (PBEM) game, that is run on one of the automated judge servers. The downside is that you need someone to be the Game Master who can't actually play. I've enlisted Stephanie for this, and she's (somewhat reluctantly) agreed to do this and promises not to divulge any secrets to me. So I'm looking for 6 other people who aren't in much physical contact with each other (i.e. in different cities so you can't conspire over a board together whenever you want) to start up a game. I think it will be moves every 3 days, adjustments over 1 day. Also, I would like to see high-volume emailing and negotiating. So don't say yes if you're going to check your email once a day and maybe get back to someone. 3 days is enough time to send out 1 or 2 emails a day for negotiating. I'm sure we're all good enough typists. Anyway, if you're interested you can post a comment telling me so, or just email me. Once I get 6 more, I'll email out and set this thing up.
1) There are several key rules that are screwed up. First and foremost is that you can't support a convoy, i.e. you can't support a naval invasion a la D-Day. This is really crippling for England, since they're are going to have an impossible time getting past the stalemate lines fast enough. The program also doesn't recognize the difference between friend and foe units when adjudicating, so you can self-dislodge. There was a painful moment in my game where I was using that fact to defend a space only to be forced to retreat from my own units! Also, disbands are handled at the same time as builds, which really messes things up. I need to know what's on my borders before I know what I should build. Anyway, there are probably more issues as well that I just haven't run into yet. Very frustrating.
2) The game I'm playing in right now, I'm not close to any of the other players (either proximity or on a personal level except for one), so it's hard to conduct, you know, diplomacy. There's a forum for sending messages and stuff, but it's woefully underused. This game is ultimately about negotiating and finding ways to interact with your friends and enemies to advance your own interests.
Those are my two big points. But I'm glad that there's a new forum for people to get introduced to this game. It's a lot of fun, and the more the merrier. But hopefully someone can work on this and make a better application.
With that said, I want to set up a play-by-e-mail (PBEM) game, that is run on one of the automated judge servers. The downside is that you need someone to be the Game Master who can't actually play. I've enlisted Stephanie for this, and she's (somewhat reluctantly) agreed to do this and promises not to divulge any secrets to me. So I'm looking for 6 other people who aren't in much physical contact with each other (i.e. in different cities so you can't conspire over a board together whenever you want) to start up a game. I think it will be moves every 3 days, adjustments over 1 day. Also, I would like to see high-volume emailing and negotiating. So don't say yes if you're going to check your email once a day and maybe get back to someone. 3 days is enough time to send out 1 or 2 emails a day for negotiating. I'm sure we're all good enough typists. Anyway, if you're interested you can post a comment telling me so, or just email me. Once I get 6 more, I'll email out and set this thing up.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Canto LXVIII
And we're back for day two of my week of blog posts. Today's post will be about my trip to Chicago a few weeks ago to visit a friend and go to Lebowski Fest. Well, I'm actually not sure how much there is to tell. They treated me real good, ate some great food, and had some good times bowling. Maybe I'll let a couple pictures do the talking.
Arg, it's really bothering me that I can't get these damn images to rotate correctly. I'll have to figure this out somehow. Anyway, here's me and a buddy out on the lanes.
And me relaxing with a beverage. You know, just enjoying my beverage.
Seriously, it was a great time. This is now the second time I've been to Chicago, and each time my hosts have been superb so they keep making me want to go back. It looks like they'll be visiting New England sometime this summer, so we'll have the chance to finally repay them in kind. What else did we do there? Well besides the food (which was excellent, if somewhat meat-filled), we went to the dollar theater for a viewing of I Am Legend, whilst the school teacher graded her tests. I don't know about that movie, a dollar seemed about right. I guess the DVD has some alternate ending and such. But I doubt I'll ever find out what really happened.
Monday morning, before flying back home, I went downtown to the Art Institute. There's something so pleasing about putting on some nice classical music (Beethoven) and wandering around the Medieval European through to Impressionism section. It just felt right. And I put on some Beck (Odelay) when I got to the Modern Art section. Which also felt appropriate. Again, as I said yesterday, I've been listening to a lot of music lately. But the American Art wing was closed for renovations, so no American Gothic, and Hopper's Nighthawks was in with the special exhibit on Edward Hopper which is touring the country right now. But I'd seen them before, so it was OK, if only a little disappointing. I remember being so impressed with Nighthawks when we saw it for the first time two years ago. It's an amazing painting.
Anyway, good times were had by all. I may have to do another Lebowski Fest. Maybe one will come to Boston. I can only hope.
Arg, it's really bothering me that I can't get these damn images to rotate correctly. I'll have to figure this out somehow. Anyway, here's me and a buddy out on the lanes.
And me relaxing with a beverage. You know, just enjoying my beverage. Seriously, it was a great time. This is now the second time I've been to Chicago, and each time my hosts have been superb so they keep making me want to go back. It looks like they'll be visiting New England sometime this summer, so we'll have the chance to finally repay them in kind. What else did we do there? Well besides the food (which was excellent, if somewhat meat-filled), we went to the dollar theater for a viewing of I Am Legend, whilst the school teacher graded her tests. I don't know about that movie, a dollar seemed about right. I guess the DVD has some alternate ending and such. But I doubt I'll ever find out what really happened.
Monday morning, before flying back home, I went downtown to the Art Institute. There's something so pleasing about putting on some nice classical music (Beethoven) and wandering around the Medieval European through to Impressionism section. It just felt right. And I put on some Beck (Odelay) when I got to the Modern Art section. Which also felt appropriate. Again, as I said yesterday, I've been listening to a lot of music lately. But the American Art wing was closed for renovations, so no American Gothic, and Hopper's Nighthawks was in with the special exhibit on Edward Hopper which is touring the country right now. But I'd seen them before, so it was OK, if only a little disappointing. I remember being so impressed with Nighthawks when we saw it for the first time two years ago. It's an amazing painting.
Anyway, good times were had by all. I may have to do another Lebowski Fest. Maybe one will come to Boston. I can only hope.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Canto LXVII
So it's been a little while. Okay, more than a little while. But like the little fighter that could in Punch-Out, I have tapped "A" a bunch and I'm back! I've got a list of topics I want to hit up this week, and some pictures to share. So my plan is a new post every day this week. We'll see if I can hold myself to it.
Today I'm going to talk about music. Mostly because I've been listening to a lot of music lately, but I'm not sure if it's any more than normal. But I feel I must spread the word about a new band I found out about. They're called the 1900's, from Chicago. Here's their MySpace site, and you can give them a listen. A friend of mine from Chicago whose a grad student here gave me their album and now I'm completely in love with them. Sadly, they don't have their title track from the album Cold & Kind. But Bring the Good Boys Home is quite excellent. Just imagine two beautiful women singing in harmony the following lyrics:
"I don't believe I've ever told you
Something about my murderous mind,
That it's cold & kind and filled with hate,
Like strange attractors that keep their shape over time."
They're totally awesome. A nice hippie band, remind me a lot of Buffalo Springfield, only with the harmonies of the Mamas and the Papas. The only downside to finding a new band to love is that they have a limited selection available, and I just have to wait for the next album. Sigh.
Next up in my music scene is Guitar Hero/Rock Band. For those who have not played it yet, I just feel sorry for you. It really is a thrill, and I love playing the Bass/Rhythm Guitar. I can't help myself. It's even inspired me to pull my bass off the shelf and make some noise. Man do I suck, but who knows. In the same way I can bench my own weight now (unlike when I started as a slightly paunchy weakling 6 months ago), in a few months maybe I can actually lay down some fat notes. The nice thing about Rock Band, besides the collaborative effort, is that they're putting out new songs every week, so you can keep enjoying new material. They even put out a few Dead songs! Really, the only hole in the repertoire is no Zeppelin. But we all know that they're insanely protective of their music, which is fine, but it would be fun to play drums to "When the Levee Breaks"...
Today I'm going to talk about music. Mostly because I've been listening to a lot of music lately, but I'm not sure if it's any more than normal. But I feel I must spread the word about a new band I found out about. They're called the 1900's, from Chicago. Here's their MySpace site, and you can give them a listen. A friend of mine from Chicago whose a grad student here gave me their album and now I'm completely in love with them. Sadly, they don't have their title track from the album Cold & Kind. But Bring the Good Boys Home is quite excellent. Just imagine two beautiful women singing in harmony the following lyrics:
"I don't believe I've ever told you
Something about my murderous mind,
That it's cold & kind and filled with hate,
Like strange attractors that keep their shape over time."
They're totally awesome. A nice hippie band, remind me a lot of Buffalo Springfield, only with the harmonies of the Mamas and the Papas. The only downside to finding a new band to love is that they have a limited selection available, and I just have to wait for the next album. Sigh.
Next up in my music scene is Guitar Hero/Rock Band. For those who have not played it yet, I just feel sorry for you. It really is a thrill, and I love playing the Bass/Rhythm Guitar. I can't help myself. It's even inspired me to pull my bass off the shelf and make some noise. Man do I suck, but who knows. In the same way I can bench my own weight now (unlike when I started as a slightly paunchy weakling 6 months ago), in a few months maybe I can actually lay down some fat notes. The nice thing about Rock Band, besides the collaborative effort, is that they're putting out new songs every week, so you can keep enjoying new material. They even put out a few Dead songs! Really, the only hole in the repertoire is no Zeppelin. But we all know that they're insanely protective of their music, which is fine, but it would be fun to play drums to "When the Levee Breaks"...
Friday, February 15, 2008
Canto LXVI
Valentine's Day activities! Well, it was a nice enough night. There were even flowers involved.
Steph and I met up after work to eat some food and see a show. Since the theater district is right next to Chinatown, it seemed like a logical place to have some food. There's been one place that Steph has wanted to go to for a while, so that's what we did.
As we walked in, there was no sound, but all the lights were on. We walked upstairs to the restaurant. Still nothing. There was one man at the counter, who quickly beconed us in, and walked us into the main dining area. Now let me tell you the reason we Steph wanted to eat here is that she's heard it's very opulent because it's really a converted theater/auditorium. And it really is, there's trim everywhere, lots of frescoes on the ceiling, a balcony, etc. And it was empty. Completely empty. Never a good sign when you're visiting a restaurant. So we were seated directly in the middle of this place that looked liked it belonged on the set of some 30s gangster film. I counted, there were about 60 tables, seating either 4 or 8 people. So on a busy night, this place can hold 300+, instead it was just dinner for two. It most reminded me of the opening scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. We kept expecting someone with a Tommy Gun to jump out and start shooting, and I was planning an elaborate fight scene and getaway. It was really weird. I think it's pretty clear that we interrupted a huge Chinese Mafia meeting. But the food was decent, and we made it to the show on time.
My Fair Lady was fun. Musicals aren't really my thing, but Steph really loved it, so you should ask her about it.
Steph and I met up after work to eat some food and see a show. Since the theater district is right next to Chinatown, it seemed like a logical place to have some food. There's been one place that Steph has wanted to go to for a while, so that's what we did.
As we walked in, there was no sound, but all the lights were on. We walked upstairs to the restaurant. Still nothing. There was one man at the counter, who quickly beconed us in, and walked us into the main dining area. Now let me tell you the reason we Steph wanted to eat here is that she's heard it's very opulent because it's really a converted theater/auditorium. And it really is, there's trim everywhere, lots of frescoes on the ceiling, a balcony, etc. And it was empty. Completely empty. Never a good sign when you're visiting a restaurant. So we were seated directly in the middle of this place that looked liked it belonged on the set of some 30s gangster film. I counted, there were about 60 tables, seating either 4 or 8 people. So on a busy night, this place can hold 300+, instead it was just dinner for two. It most reminded me of the opening scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. We kept expecting someone with a Tommy Gun to jump out and start shooting, and I was planning an elaborate fight scene and getaway. It was really weird. I think it's pretty clear that we interrupted a huge Chinese Mafia meeting. But the food was decent, and we made it to the show on time.
My Fair Lady was fun. Musicals aren't really my thing, but Steph really loved it, so you should ask her about it.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Canto LXV
Warning - lots of side-thoughts (and therefore parentheses).
After another less-than-exciting Christmas this year, Steph and I decided to splurge a little and upgrade our viewing world. (Personally, all Christmases are less-than-exciting after about age 6, 7 or 8. I mean, I just can't be that excited about the gifts I receive now. I'm grateful and enjoy them an such, but I'm no longer freaking out because I got a new bike or something. The really zealous passion is gone. Maybe if I had gotten a Wii.) We had an older DVD player from a few years ago (a 5-disc carousel - how is that useful for DVDs?!?), and it had a rather annoying habit of freezing or skipping. Usually all you had to do was open and close it and it would be fine, but it was really, really annoying. So I managed to talk Steph into spending a whole $50 for a new DVD player. I figure in a couple of years we'll be in the market for a sweet HD TV and Blu Ray player once Steph's become my sugar momma. (By the way, she's on her way - she interviewed for a job in the library next door to where she works, it went well, and we'll know more in a week or two. Fancier title and more $$$! That can only be a good thing for me!) But to go with our nice, new player, we also did the Netflix thing. I must admit, it's rather nice! We're only doing the 1 DVD at-a-time, unlimited in a month. But this is about as much as we can watch, since we just watch one on the weekend, mail it in, and the next one is here in time for the next weekend. I've been trying to use this as an opportunity to see many movies that I always meant to see, but never got around to. Thus far my contributions are Midnight Cowboy, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and High Noon. Steph has supplied Star Trek II, Star Trek IV, Spider and Mulholland Drive. I'll let you make your own judgments about that. But it's been fun and provoked some interesting discussion about the movies afterwards.
We've also been watching the HBO mini-series Rome, thanks to my officemate's special lady friend. It's really good! I may get annoyed about some of the inter-personal stuff and it's role in the larger historical events, but I can still say it's been a lot of fun to watch. It's like Star Wars, in that it's following 2 minor characters (Titus Pullo and Lucius Varenus vs. R2-D2 and C-3PO) that are center stage to the defining people and events of the age. Done with the first season, we'll get around to the second season soon.
In some technical news, I put together all the pieces for our computer, have a Windows XP boot disc (CD), but it's not working yet. I'm very unhappy about this. Our glorious new machine should be done by now! The problem seems to be the hard drive. I know we need to partition and format it before we can install stuff on it, but for some reason it never gives me the option to do so. I think I know what the problem is, but we don't have a 3.5" floppy drive to install the RAID drivers. So now we need to get a USB floppy drive or something like that. Sigh. It's almost done.
After another less-than-exciting Christmas this year, Steph and I decided to splurge a little and upgrade our viewing world. (Personally, all Christmases are less-than-exciting after about age 6, 7 or 8. I mean, I just can't be that excited about the gifts I receive now. I'm grateful and enjoy them an such, but I'm no longer freaking out because I got a new bike or something. The really zealous passion is gone. Maybe if I had gotten a Wii.) We had an older DVD player from a few years ago (a 5-disc carousel - how is that useful for DVDs?!?), and it had a rather annoying habit of freezing or skipping. Usually all you had to do was open and close it and it would be fine, but it was really, really annoying. So I managed to talk Steph into spending a whole $50 for a new DVD player. I figure in a couple of years we'll be in the market for a sweet HD TV and Blu Ray player once Steph's become my sugar momma. (By the way, she's on her way - she interviewed for a job in the library next door to where she works, it went well, and we'll know more in a week or two. Fancier title and more $$$! That can only be a good thing for me!) But to go with our nice, new player, we also did the Netflix thing. I must admit, it's rather nice! We're only doing the 1 DVD at-a-time, unlimited in a month. But this is about as much as we can watch, since we just watch one on the weekend, mail it in, and the next one is here in time for the next weekend. I've been trying to use this as an opportunity to see many movies that I always meant to see, but never got around to. Thus far my contributions are Midnight Cowboy, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and High Noon. Steph has supplied Star Trek II, Star Trek IV, Spider and Mulholland Drive. I'll let you make your own judgments about that. But it's been fun and provoked some interesting discussion about the movies afterwards.
We've also been watching the HBO mini-series Rome, thanks to my officemate's special lady friend. It's really good! I may get annoyed about some of the inter-personal stuff and it's role in the larger historical events, but I can still say it's been a lot of fun to watch. It's like Star Wars, in that it's following 2 minor characters (Titus Pullo and Lucius Varenus vs. R2-D2 and C-3PO) that are center stage to the defining people and events of the age. Done with the first season, we'll get around to the second season soon.
In some technical news, I put together all the pieces for our computer, have a Windows XP boot disc (CD), but it's not working yet. I'm very unhappy about this. Our glorious new machine should be done by now! The problem seems to be the hard drive. I know we need to partition and format it before we can install stuff on it, but for some reason it never gives me the option to do so. I think I know what the problem is, but we don't have a 3.5" floppy drive to install the RAID drivers. So now we need to get a USB floppy drive or something like that. Sigh. It's almost done.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Canto LXIV
FUCK SHIT FUCK GOD DAMN IT FUCK FUCK FUCK
I just wasted 2 days of my life trying to fix an "error" in my calculations. I knew my earlier result was right, but then due to some additional thought, I realized I was doing it wrong. And then everything went to hell. But now I have realized what I was doing wrong the second time around, and have recovered the initial result I calculated. It turns out that 2 wrongs do make a right in some cases, which what happened when I first did the calculation, but that only fixing one of the wrongs just fucks everything up. But all better now. I just want those 2 days of my life back.
I just wasted 2 days of my life trying to fix an "error" in my calculations. I knew my earlier result was right, but then due to some additional thought, I realized I was doing it wrong. And then everything went to hell. But now I have realized what I was doing wrong the second time around, and have recovered the initial result I calculated. It turns out that 2 wrongs do make a right in some cases, which what happened when I first did the calculation, but that only fixing one of the wrongs just fucks everything up. But all better now. I just want those 2 days of my life back.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Canto LXIII
Alright, so it's been 2 months. Here's a recap, bulletin-style!
- Thanksgiving. Awesome. We made a "surprise" trip back to Oregon to see the family for Thanksgiving dinner. It really was a surprise, and we had a great time. The following week, we took off and visited a few people in the Portland/Eugene area, and also stayed at Black Butte. It was perhaps our most restful vacation back to Oregon, which was quite a change. If we didn't get to see you, so sorry, better luck next year!
- End of school. Finally. Our class did very well, coming 2nd in terms of grade average out of 7. Not bad for someone teaching his first real class ever, and someone who doesn't care (that's me!). Glad it's over, now I have until next September to do this thing we call "research". Time to Get Smart!
- Christmas. Well, with us having taken Thanksgiving off in Oregon, we stayed here in Cambridge. Christmas day, we had some people over (2 Indians, 2 Americans), and that was a lot of fun. But mostly it was about sleeping in and being lazy. I think our vacations this winter we by far the most lazy we've ever had. Not that we're complaining, it was very refreshing. When I finally got back to work, it was weird. I woke up in the morning with the alarm, but I was actually rested and ready to do stuff. Not sure exactly how long that lasted, since that feeling is gone now, but it was noticeably different for a little while. I miss vacation already.
- January. It's been both very cold and unseasonably warm around here. But there's snow on the ground now, so that's nice. I do like the snow. Not too much going on for me work/school wise. I'm getting better about budgeting my time, but still not great at it. The problem is, I find some interesting problem to work on, and I know I should only spend a day or two, but maybe it needs more than that? A week, maybe two. But there are plenty of other things that I need to read about, calculate, as well as non-research stuff that I'm doing like seminars and talks. That time-tuner from Harry Potter doesn't seem like that bad of an idea. I promise I won't kill my own grandpa! I just need a few extra hours in a day!
- More school. I'm taking a ceramics class, Basic Cups and Bowls. It's been a lot of fun! The lady teaching the class said it was the best therapy for stress that she knows. It's true, you start working with some clay on the wheel, and it's just fun. Among the other things I'm doing at work, I'm now the organizer for the Friday Lunch Club talks for the graduate students in the CTP. I'm trying to force them to actually practice giving talks, and there seems to be some success. The only way to become a better speaker is to actually speak in front of an audience. But they (my fellow grad students) were really only willing to do that if the faculty were un-invited. So I had to send out the email that said to many esteemed physicists (and some Nobel Prize winners) that they were not welcome at these talks any more. I tried to be polite, and I think it's for the best. I'm giving the first talk, in a little under 2 weeks, on February 8th. It's going to be on Bound State Quantum Field Theory, I'm really excited. I just learned about this topic last summer while doing a side research project. There was a retreat this week up in New Hampshire with the whole theory group and it was a lot of fun. The talks were pretty good, although I really feel someone needs to point out that after an hour or so, most people can't keep processing new material. There's a point diminishing returns, and when the speaker and the 2 interested people in the audience keep going on for almost 2 hours, it's a little hard. We need more, shorter talks, spaced throughout the day, rather than a few long talks.
- I've also been lifting with some regularity thanks to some friends, and I'm taking a squash class this spring. I've realized that I need a class or partners to make myself do these things other wise I'll just keep putting it off. Gotta stay healthy! Steph and I are trying to finish up Zelda - Twilight Princess, which we started a year late over Christmas. Then Final Fantasy XII for me, then I think I'm done. Seriously. No more. We also are finally replacing the computer that Tim willed onto us 3 1/2 years ago, and is now more than 5 years old. Yes, our home computer (not the one that I'm typing one right now, thank god!) is 1.3 GHz Pentium with 384 GB of RAM and a monstrous 40 GB hard drive. (Don't worry, we have an external 100 GB one as well, but it's hooked up through... USB 1.0!) But we decided to have an adventure with it, and are building our own. We have the case, motherboard, CPU, and RAM bought. We still need to get the hard drive and optical drive, but those should be in the next week or so. Then we'll take a day one of these weekends and see if we can't get it to work! There's always something so satisfying about doing it for yourself. Maybe with our tax rebate, we'll buy a nice flat-panel monitor. Will that help our economy, or the Chinese? And lastly, my 10 year High School reunion is now officially upon me. Lincoln '98 will be reunionizing this July 4th weekend. I'm really looking forward to it. How many crack addicts do you think we managed to produce?
Okay, well that's pretty much all my news from the last 2 months. Exciting, I know. Now to post some comments to let people know I'm not dead.
- Thanksgiving. Awesome. We made a "surprise" trip back to Oregon to see the family for Thanksgiving dinner. It really was a surprise, and we had a great time. The following week, we took off and visited a few people in the Portland/Eugene area, and also stayed at Black Butte. It was perhaps our most restful vacation back to Oregon, which was quite a change. If we didn't get to see you, so sorry, better luck next year!
- End of school. Finally. Our class did very well, coming 2nd in terms of grade average out of 7. Not bad for someone teaching his first real class ever, and someone who doesn't care (that's me!). Glad it's over, now I have until next September to do this thing we call "research". Time to Get Smart!
- Christmas. Well, with us having taken Thanksgiving off in Oregon, we stayed here in Cambridge. Christmas day, we had some people over (2 Indians, 2 Americans), and that was a lot of fun. But mostly it was about sleeping in and being lazy. I think our vacations this winter we by far the most lazy we've ever had. Not that we're complaining, it was very refreshing. When I finally got back to work, it was weird. I woke up in the morning with the alarm, but I was actually rested and ready to do stuff. Not sure exactly how long that lasted, since that feeling is gone now, but it was noticeably different for a little while. I miss vacation already.
- January. It's been both very cold and unseasonably warm around here. But there's snow on the ground now, so that's nice. I do like the snow. Not too much going on for me work/school wise. I'm getting better about budgeting my time, but still not great at it. The problem is, I find some interesting problem to work on, and I know I should only spend a day or two, but maybe it needs more than that? A week, maybe two. But there are plenty of other things that I need to read about, calculate, as well as non-research stuff that I'm doing like seminars and talks. That time-tuner from Harry Potter doesn't seem like that bad of an idea. I promise I won't kill my own grandpa! I just need a few extra hours in a day!
- More school. I'm taking a ceramics class, Basic Cups and Bowls. It's been a lot of fun! The lady teaching the class said it was the best therapy for stress that she knows. It's true, you start working with some clay on the wheel, and it's just fun. Among the other things I'm doing at work, I'm now the organizer for the Friday Lunch Club talks for the graduate students in the CTP. I'm trying to force them to actually practice giving talks, and there seems to be some success. The only way to become a better speaker is to actually speak in front of an audience. But they (my fellow grad students) were really only willing to do that if the faculty were un-invited. So I had to send out the email that said to many esteemed physicists (and some Nobel Prize winners) that they were not welcome at these talks any more. I tried to be polite, and I think it's for the best. I'm giving the first talk, in a little under 2 weeks, on February 8th. It's going to be on Bound State Quantum Field Theory, I'm really excited. I just learned about this topic last summer while doing a side research project. There was a retreat this week up in New Hampshire with the whole theory group and it was a lot of fun. The talks were pretty good, although I really feel someone needs to point out that after an hour or so, most people can't keep processing new material. There's a point diminishing returns, and when the speaker and the 2 interested people in the audience keep going on for almost 2 hours, it's a little hard. We need more, shorter talks, spaced throughout the day, rather than a few long talks.
- I've also been lifting with some regularity thanks to some friends, and I'm taking a squash class this spring. I've realized that I need a class or partners to make myself do these things other wise I'll just keep putting it off. Gotta stay healthy! Steph and I are trying to finish up Zelda - Twilight Princess, which we started a year late over Christmas. Then Final Fantasy XII for me, then I think I'm done. Seriously. No more. We also are finally replacing the computer that Tim willed onto us 3 1/2 years ago, and is now more than 5 years old. Yes, our home computer (not the one that I'm typing one right now, thank god!) is 1.3 GHz Pentium with 384 GB of RAM and a monstrous 40 GB hard drive. (Don't worry, we have an external 100 GB one as well, but it's hooked up through... USB 1.0!) But we decided to have an adventure with it, and are building our own. We have the case, motherboard, CPU, and RAM bought. We still need to get the hard drive and optical drive, but those should be in the next week or so. Then we'll take a day one of these weekends and see if we can't get it to work! There's always something so satisfying about doing it for yourself. Maybe with our tax rebate, we'll buy a nice flat-panel monitor. Will that help our economy, or the Chinese? And lastly, my 10 year High School reunion is now officially upon me. Lincoln '98 will be reunionizing this July 4th weekend. I'm really looking forward to it. How many crack addicts do you think we managed to produce?
Okay, well that's pretty much all my news from the last 2 months. Exciting, I know. Now to post some comments to let people know I'm not dead.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Canto LXII
Live blogging of the Oregon game! Here we go! It's something I've wanted to do for a while, and a late Thursday night game is the perfect opportunity. Although with all the late breaking news about Barry Bonds being indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice and A-Rod signing a new $275 million dollar deal, I wonder how much attention this game will garner in the sports media tomorrow.
Well, it's 8:52 PM, and I've turned on ESPN and they're still wetting their pants over the above stories. I'm almost done with my last little bit of homework I wanted to finish before the weekend. And the pre-game show has now begun!
8:55 - Funny story, today's colloquium speaker here at MIT physics was from Arizona. It was on the use of optics in Renaissance paintings. He basically said all Art History majors are stupid. And the only thing right now the talking heads can talk about is upset, upset, upset. Oregon is favored by only 12.5, which I think is pretty low if I was a gambling man.
9:01 - And now they're doing a stupid magic theme for the opening. Why not play a little Steve Miller with that?
9:02 - I think I'm going to go ahead and have the phrase 'I have a huge man-crush on Jonathan Stewart' saved in my cut and paste. That opening kickoff should have been stopped before the 20, but his balance let him keep going out to the 30. And then he rips off a 25 yard run past the 50! I have a huge man-crush on Jonathan Stewart!
9:05 - I wonder if Dixon is going to be a little rusty tonight. After the knee thing, I wonder how hard he pressed during practice. That O-line can give him plenty of time, though, so he can catch up. I agree with this 4th down play call.... YEEESSSSS!!!!! Nice read, and just a smooth jaunt into the endzone. And now a 2-pointer! Oh Snap!
9:08 - The reason I agree with that 4th down attempt is:
1) It's early, so there's plenty of time to recover
2) It's around the 40 yard line, so punting wouldn't gain more than 20 yards without a very nice punt
3) This offense can get a few yards just about whenever it needs it
4) And of course, it worked, so there's always 20/20 hindsight to rest on, too
9:09 - Who is Taryne Mowatt? Why is she introducing the Cats?
9:10 - Interception, along with some offensive pass interference that was not called! I think my Oregon Duck that plays Mighty Oregon is going to be running out of batteries tonight...
9:13 - Jaison Williams with a good catch over the middle! He only drops those in the 4th quarter. And followed up with a nifty reverse! I can't call it an end-around, even though the ball only changed hands once. There was motion one way, then the field reversed. And now an interception... Bad 'catch' there, and an unlucky bounce to the saftey.
9:18 - Bad tackling. Arizona is not going to win tonight constantly throwing underneath. A lucky run on a long 3rd down, and some bad missed tackles isn't going to win the game.
9:25 - Dixon does look calm, but that's only because that O-line isn't letting anything through. I have a huge man-crush on Jonathan Stewart, that was a really nice run to the 30. Crenshaw isn't chopped liver, either. Ohhh shit. I hope that isn't that bad.
9:29 - And the Brady Leaf era is here. Just get the 3 points, and lets see if Dixon can get back in the game.
9:39 - Nope. He's gone for the night, as are his Heisman hopes. Defense needs to step up now. Only gave up a field goal. The O-line and Stewart can get plenty done, but Leaf just isn't the same. Wow, terrible decision by Stewart. I know you want to make things happen, but half way back in the endzone on a kickoff isn't the place to do it.
9:45 - End of the first quarter. Leaf's looking good handing the ball off, and then faking out the defense with a terrible pump-fake that allowed him to gain 7 yards. Oregon already has more than 150 yards rushing. Looking like another highlight game for the O-line, but the defense needs to tighten up.
9:47 - Ugh. Not good. Not good at all.
9:51 - And there's the Jaison Williams drop on 3rd down we've come to know and love. Tedy Bruschi also on from my most hated team in the NFL. Not good few minutes for me.
9:57 - Shit shit shit. That zone defense isn't looking too good right now.
10:07 - The offense just isn't the same. I don't know if they can score more than 2 or 3 touchdowns for the rest of the game. Let's hope halftime can turn things around.
10:15 - I thought that was a block in the back on the first gunner there, but no, and the touchdown stands.
10:21 - Offense showing some signs of life. Getting a little more methodical. I agree that Stewart needs to be a big part of the offense now, but I don't think he's a 35 carry kind of guy. And not with the defense keying on him every snap. 3rd and long, and Arizona's coaching staff is going a little crazy.
10:26 - And that's just ugly. Why not just run the ball, take the FG, and be happy your offense found some traction? Annnnddd, shank you very much.
10:32 - Arizona's TV ad tells us they were Arizona's first university. Congratulations! And Jaison Williams faked the drop, to fool the defense, and picks up a huge first down out the mid-field!
10:35 - Jaison Williams waits for the ball, and almost has it incepted in front of him, then makes nice catch on the outside at the 20. And of course, Oregon's ad isn't much better.
10:38 - Nice blitz pick-up by Stewart, but with the extra time Leaf throws it right out the end zone. And just think if we had kick a FG the previous possession, we'd only be down 14, instead it's 17. Halftime. The real difference is the 2 INTs (one returned for TD) and the punt return. Oregon can get back in this. Back in 20 minutes!
11:05 - I don't really like only rushing only 3 on 3rd down, try and keep the pressure up, but they pick up a big personal foul penalty, and get a punt after a brief scare on 3rd and 25.
11:25 - Blogger just fucked me. Anyway, the defense is turning it on, but the offense still has a way to go. Still have the man-crush on Stewart.
11:42 - Thanks to ESPN for not showing that last play for a loss. Flutie finally notes that the defense has been playing pretty good.
11:43 - Dueling punters has been the story this 3rd quarter and the last half of the 2nd. I don't know if a Dixon for Heisman commercial is appropriate right now.
11:50 - Fake Punt!!! And #4 for Arizona is signaling the wrong way. WHAT?!?!
11:54 - God damn it. How did Arizona recover that? Seriously? There were 4 Ducks there, and no Cats. I've always wondered if a replay could overturn a fumble recovery call.
12:05 - How the fuck can you call that a fumble?!?! WTF? Did this crew not see last week's game between OSU and UW? He was standing right there, and still ruled it a fumble, despite the fact that he could clearly see that both the runner was down, then reached forward and lost the ball because he hit the ground. How on earth can you possibly see that otherwise? At least the replay did it's job, unlike last week. I guess the Pac-10 does have the worse refs.
12:16 - Touchdown!!! A very nice drive. That's exactly what they needed to do. Make Arizona stop you, and don't let Leaf kill your season. I might have a heart attack tonight...
12:24 - Missed facemask call on Nick Reed, showing off the Pac-10 officiating at it's finest. Of course, they missed a similar call (but less flagrant) against Stewart on the previous drive.
12:28 - After a tough failure to stop them on 4th down, they get a HUGE fumble. BUT, we have to watch more botched officiating instead. This is close, but it looks like it's going back to Arizona. The defense is trying.
12:38 - Crenshaw, not Stewart. This is suddenly turning into the season that could have been. I hope my man-crush is OK.
12:43 - Intercepted. That's about all, folks. Still 3 timeouts, so this is actually going to go a while, despite all the students on the sidelines.
12:51 - 14 seconds to go, 2 quick plays and that's about it. Let's see here, top 2 receivers, top 2 running backs, and our Heisman front runner QB are out by the end of this game. And that's just the skill players on offense. I guess we'll never know how that would have gone had Dixon not been injured on the Duck's third drive. The Ducks were in it all the way through the second half, but the offense never really got going, and the mistakes early in the 2nd quarter cost them the game.
12:56 - Bed time now, along with a vow to never do this again. On a related side note, are Pac-10 refs the worse refs out there? This was a terribly officiated game. Anyway, here's hoping the guys can mend up, and for a USC win over ASU.
Well, it's 8:52 PM, and I've turned on ESPN and they're still wetting their pants over the above stories. I'm almost done with my last little bit of homework I wanted to finish before the weekend. And the pre-game show has now begun!
8:55 - Funny story, today's colloquium speaker here at MIT physics was from Arizona. It was on the use of optics in Renaissance paintings. He basically said all Art History majors are stupid. And the only thing right now the talking heads can talk about is upset, upset, upset. Oregon is favored by only 12.5, which I think is pretty low if I was a gambling man.
9:01 - And now they're doing a stupid magic theme for the opening. Why not play a little Steve Miller with that?
9:02 - I think I'm going to go ahead and have the phrase 'I have a huge man-crush on Jonathan Stewart' saved in my cut and paste. That opening kickoff should have been stopped before the 20, but his balance let him keep going out to the 30. And then he rips off a 25 yard run past the 50! I have a huge man-crush on Jonathan Stewart!
9:05 - I wonder if Dixon is going to be a little rusty tonight. After the knee thing, I wonder how hard he pressed during practice. That O-line can give him plenty of time, though, so he can catch up. I agree with this 4th down play call.... YEEESSSSS!!!!! Nice read, and just a smooth jaunt into the endzone. And now a 2-pointer! Oh Snap!
9:08 - The reason I agree with that 4th down attempt is:
1) It's early, so there's plenty of time to recover
2) It's around the 40 yard line, so punting wouldn't gain more than 20 yards without a very nice punt
3) This offense can get a few yards just about whenever it needs it
4) And of course, it worked, so there's always 20/20 hindsight to rest on, too
9:09 - Who is Taryne Mowatt? Why is she introducing the Cats?
9:10 - Interception, along with some offensive pass interference that was not called! I think my Oregon Duck that plays Mighty Oregon is going to be running out of batteries tonight...
9:13 - Jaison Williams with a good catch over the middle! He only drops those in the 4th quarter. And followed up with a nifty reverse! I can't call it an end-around, even though the ball only changed hands once. There was motion one way, then the field reversed. And now an interception... Bad 'catch' there, and an unlucky bounce to the saftey.
9:18 - Bad tackling. Arizona is not going to win tonight constantly throwing underneath. A lucky run on a long 3rd down, and some bad missed tackles isn't going to win the game.
9:25 - Dixon does look calm, but that's only because that O-line isn't letting anything through. I have a huge man-crush on Jonathan Stewart, that was a really nice run to the 30. Crenshaw isn't chopped liver, either. Ohhh shit. I hope that isn't that bad.
9:29 - And the Brady Leaf era is here. Just get the 3 points, and lets see if Dixon can get back in the game.
9:39 - Nope. He's gone for the night, as are his Heisman hopes. Defense needs to step up now. Only gave up a field goal. The O-line and Stewart can get plenty done, but Leaf just isn't the same. Wow, terrible decision by Stewart. I know you want to make things happen, but half way back in the endzone on a kickoff isn't the place to do it.
9:45 - End of the first quarter. Leaf's looking good handing the ball off, and then faking out the defense with a terrible pump-fake that allowed him to gain 7 yards. Oregon already has more than 150 yards rushing. Looking like another highlight game for the O-line, but the defense needs to tighten up.
9:47 - Ugh. Not good. Not good at all.
9:51 - And there's the Jaison Williams drop on 3rd down we've come to know and love. Tedy Bruschi also on from my most hated team in the NFL. Not good few minutes for me.
9:57 - Shit shit shit. That zone defense isn't looking too good right now.
10:07 - The offense just isn't the same. I don't know if they can score more than 2 or 3 touchdowns for the rest of the game. Let's hope halftime can turn things around.
10:15 - I thought that was a block in the back on the first gunner there, but no, and the touchdown stands.
10:21 - Offense showing some signs of life. Getting a little more methodical. I agree that Stewart needs to be a big part of the offense now, but I don't think he's a 35 carry kind of guy. And not with the defense keying on him every snap. 3rd and long, and Arizona's coaching staff is going a little crazy.
10:26 - And that's just ugly. Why not just run the ball, take the FG, and be happy your offense found some traction? Annnnddd, shank you very much.
10:32 - Arizona's TV ad tells us they were Arizona's first university. Congratulations! And Jaison Williams faked the drop, to fool the defense, and picks up a huge first down out the mid-field!
10:35 - Jaison Williams waits for the ball, and almost has it incepted in front of him, then makes nice catch on the outside at the 20. And of course, Oregon's ad isn't much better.
10:38 - Nice blitz pick-up by Stewart, but with the extra time Leaf throws it right out the end zone. And just think if we had kick a FG the previous possession, we'd only be down 14, instead it's 17. Halftime. The real difference is the 2 INTs (one returned for TD) and the punt return. Oregon can get back in this. Back in 20 minutes!
11:05 - I don't really like only rushing only 3 on 3rd down, try and keep the pressure up, but they pick up a big personal foul penalty, and get a punt after a brief scare on 3rd and 25.
11:25 - Blogger just fucked me. Anyway, the defense is turning it on, but the offense still has a way to go. Still have the man-crush on Stewart.
11:42 - Thanks to ESPN for not showing that last play for a loss. Flutie finally notes that the defense has been playing pretty good.
11:43 - Dueling punters has been the story this 3rd quarter and the last half of the 2nd. I don't know if a Dixon for Heisman commercial is appropriate right now.
11:50 - Fake Punt!!! And #4 for Arizona is signaling the wrong way. WHAT?!?!
11:54 - God damn it. How did Arizona recover that? Seriously? There were 4 Ducks there, and no Cats. I've always wondered if a replay could overturn a fumble recovery call.
12:05 - How the fuck can you call that a fumble?!?! WTF? Did this crew not see last week's game between OSU and UW? He was standing right there, and still ruled it a fumble, despite the fact that he could clearly see that both the runner was down, then reached forward and lost the ball because he hit the ground. How on earth can you possibly see that otherwise? At least the replay did it's job, unlike last week. I guess the Pac-10 does have the worse refs.
12:16 - Touchdown!!! A very nice drive. That's exactly what they needed to do. Make Arizona stop you, and don't let Leaf kill your season. I might have a heart attack tonight...
12:24 - Missed facemask call on Nick Reed, showing off the Pac-10 officiating at it's finest. Of course, they missed a similar call (but less flagrant) against Stewart on the previous drive.
12:28 - After a tough failure to stop them on 4th down, they get a HUGE fumble. BUT, we have to watch more botched officiating instead. This is close, but it looks like it's going back to Arizona. The defense is trying.
12:38 - Crenshaw, not Stewart. This is suddenly turning into the season that could have been. I hope my man-crush is OK.
12:43 - Intercepted. That's about all, folks. Still 3 timeouts, so this is actually going to go a while, despite all the students on the sidelines.
12:51 - 14 seconds to go, 2 quick plays and that's about it. Let's see here, top 2 receivers, top 2 running backs, and our Heisman front runner QB are out by the end of this game. And that's just the skill players on offense. I guess we'll never know how that would have gone had Dixon not been injured on the Duck's third drive. The Ducks were in it all the way through the second half, but the offense never really got going, and the mistakes early in the 2nd quarter cost them the game.
12:56 - Bed time now, along with a vow to never do this again. On a related side note, are Pac-10 refs the worse refs out there? This was a terribly officiated game. Anyway, here's hoping the guys can mend up, and for a USC win over ASU.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Canto LXI
Well, it's late friday afternoon, I'm tired of this calculation and I need a distraction. To the Blog! Also, a bunch of guys around the office with whom I would normally be killing time with went to a day conference down in Providence, RI. I would have liked to go, but sadly I had to teach the ungrateful freshman today. They suck. I think I spend most of my time now complaining about them... Oh well, it makes me feel better.
Something I've been meaning to blog about, not so much from a good-news standpoint, but well, it's something new that's happened to us. And near as we can tell has a happy ending (so far, anyway). A couple weeks ago we started to notice some signs of mice. Things had gotten a little messy, probably enough crumbs and junk on the counter and floor for one of those little fuckers to scrape by. Also, it was starting to get cold so they were probably looking for some place warm to live after the summer. Anyway, after we noticed we cleaned up a little bit so they wouldn't have anything to eat and informed the landlord. When we first moved in I noticed some very old mouse traps (the sticky kind) under the oven, so I know that this would not be too surprising. And he said he would lay down some traps in the basement to catch the bastards, which I presume he did (although we have no verification to that effect). Anyway, we continued to see signs of mice for another week plus. Those little rat bastards. So at that point what to do? This sunday while shopping, we bought our own pair of mouse traps. After we got home, we cleared off everything from the kitchen counter, plus all the lower cabinets and drawers where we could see any possible signs of mice and moved them out. Then baited the traps with some peanut butter and left them out over night. I know people talk about building a better mouse trap, but why? I mean, the ones we have seem to work pretty well. I didn't think we were going to catch anything since these mouse traps must suck so much that we constantly need better ones, but then again, I'm not as dumb as a mouse. [My parents or brother should feel free to post about me and mouse traps at a younger age.] But sure enough, next morning, we had caught a mouse! And by caught, I mean broke it's spine with a steel spring and bar, because it was most assuredly dead by the time we found it. After the morning shower, I played a little something from The Doors In Concert.
I always feel that music should reflect the moments in life. Anyway, it's been 5 days since then and nary a mouse dropping to be found! I think that if there was more than one, they are now sufficiently scared of the hand of man.
I should note that I did feel some smug sense of power after this incident. I never "got" hunting until this monday morning. I'm not saying I'm going to go out and get a rifle to kill Bambi's mom or anything, but there is some thrill in vanquishing an opponent. Even a significantly lesser foe with no real ability to fight back.
On a happier note, a friend here in the CTP is teaching this fall, and in his class is one of the program managers for MIT Radio (WMBR - 88.1 FM). So we may start a 2 hour radio show once a week, along with some other friends of ours. My friend did one in college with a buddy and said it was great. I don't know what this would involve just yet, but sounds like a lot of fun. From 2-4 AM, which is apparently the kind of time slot we would receive. I've thought about doing this before, so here's my big chance before I die. My idea is to have a theme for each show, and play about 10-15 songs based on that theme, then talk about whatever related to that subject. Think High Fidelity, like playing the Top 5 songs involving dogs, for example. Then play things like 'Martha My Dear' by The Beatles (supposedly about Paul's dog), 'My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found' by The Fiery Furnaces, Given The Dog A Bone by AC/DC, etc... It could get more or less obscure depending on how things roll. But you get the idea. Does that sound like a program you would listen to for a while? If so, do you have suggestions for themes and accompanying songs? This would probably start up after the terms over, either December or January.
Something I've been meaning to blog about, not so much from a good-news standpoint, but well, it's something new that's happened to us. And near as we can tell has a happy ending (so far, anyway). A couple weeks ago we started to notice some signs of mice. Things had gotten a little messy, probably enough crumbs and junk on the counter and floor for one of those little fuckers to scrape by. Also, it was starting to get cold so they were probably looking for some place warm to live after the summer. Anyway, after we noticed we cleaned up a little bit so they wouldn't have anything to eat and informed the landlord. When we first moved in I noticed some very old mouse traps (the sticky kind) under the oven, so I know that this would not be too surprising. And he said he would lay down some traps in the basement to catch the bastards, which I presume he did (although we have no verification to that effect). Anyway, we continued to see signs of mice for another week plus. Those little rat bastards. So at that point what to do? This sunday while shopping, we bought our own pair of mouse traps. After we got home, we cleared off everything from the kitchen counter, plus all the lower cabinets and drawers where we could see any possible signs of mice and moved them out. Then baited the traps with some peanut butter and left them out over night. I know people talk about building a better mouse trap, but why? I mean, the ones we have seem to work pretty well. I didn't think we were going to catch anything since these mouse traps must suck so much that we constantly need better ones, but then again, I'm not as dumb as a mouse. [My parents or brother should feel free to post about me and mouse traps at a younger age.] But sure enough, next morning, we had caught a mouse! And by caught, I mean broke it's spine with a steel spring and bar, because it was most assuredly dead by the time we found it. After the morning shower, I played a little something from The Doors In Concert.
I always feel that music should reflect the moments in life. Anyway, it's been 5 days since then and nary a mouse dropping to be found! I think that if there was more than one, they are now sufficiently scared of the hand of man.
I should note that I did feel some smug sense of power after this incident. I never "got" hunting until this monday morning. I'm not saying I'm going to go out and get a rifle to kill Bambi's mom or anything, but there is some thrill in vanquishing an opponent. Even a significantly lesser foe with no real ability to fight back.
On a happier note, a friend here in the CTP is teaching this fall, and in his class is one of the program managers for MIT Radio (WMBR - 88.1 FM). So we may start a 2 hour radio show once a week, along with some other friends of ours. My friend did one in college with a buddy and said it was great. I don't know what this would involve just yet, but sounds like a lot of fun. From 2-4 AM, which is apparently the kind of time slot we would receive. I've thought about doing this before, so here's my big chance before I die. My idea is to have a theme for each show, and play about 10-15 songs based on that theme, then talk about whatever related to that subject. Think High Fidelity, like playing the Top 5 songs involving dogs, for example. Then play things like 'Martha My Dear' by The Beatles (supposedly about Paul's dog), 'My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found' by The Fiery Furnaces, Given The Dog A Bone by AC/DC, etc... It could get more or less obscure depending on how things roll. But you get the idea. Does that sound like a program you would listen to for a while? If so, do you have suggestions for themes and accompanying songs? This would probably start up after the terms over, either December or January.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Canto LX
First big news. Steph's "drabble" has been published on the web! Find it here. So extra congratulations to her!
Also, this is something I've been meaning to post for a while (a month and a half or so). The greatest birthday card in the history of civilization. Hands down. Special thanks to Syd and Pete for this one.
Also, this is something I've been meaning to post for a while (a month and a half or so). The greatest birthday card in the history of civilization. Hands down. Special thanks to Syd and Pete for this one.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Canto LIX
So it's halftime of the Oregon-USC game. Things are going well for the Ducks, and they're up 10-3. It's been rough going for the Ducks, with 2 bad special teams turnovers deep in their own territory and bad starting field position. But of those 2 turnovers, USC has only managed a field goal, their only points of the game so far. And the field position hasn't been good, but they have moved the ball. I agreed with the call to go for it on 4th down, but Dixon has been so good in this game (and all year really) just let him make the play rather than hand it off. It's pretty clear that USC's game plan is to shut down Stewart, as they have been pursuing strongly him on every play. So far, with 4 possessions in the first half, with the best starting field position being the 27 yard line, they've got 1 TD, 1 FG, a turnover on downs at the 14 yard line, and a 40 yard drive with a decent punt. That's a lot of yards, and in the second half they should have plenty of opportunities.
In other sporting news, I got into my first IM dodgeball game thursday night. (Yes, I missed the first 5 innings of game 2 of the World Series.) I missed the first set of games a couple weeks ago due to a schedule conflict with my frisbee team, so I was eager to show my stuff. Anyway, the format is 3 teams get scheduled, two teams play while the other refs the matches (best of 5), and you do a quick round-robin. Each game only lasts a few minutes. It's very intense. So what happens? We swept both series, and I never got out. Not even once. But that's not even the best part. Game 2 of our second series. We're down to our final out. Me. All alone, with our opponents entire team in. But did I panic? No. That's just where I wanted them. So I start working it. Taking them out. The first two went down quick. And the third soon followed. At this point, the two remaining guys on their team had the deer in the headlights look. A few nice dodges (and some dips, ducks, dives and dodges) with good throws and soon it was one on one. At this point, he was petrified of me. He just hugged the back while and I took my time. It took something like 20 throws to finally get him out because he didn't take any chances. But he knew he didn't stand a chance.
Ohh, the game's back on. Anyway, my shoulder is now in a new kind of pain and soreness. I put everything I had into getting those outs. Also, our office finally got shelving so things are starting to look nice in my new office. I'll post some pictures later.
In other sporting news, I got into my first IM dodgeball game thursday night. (Yes, I missed the first 5 innings of game 2 of the World Series.) I missed the first set of games a couple weeks ago due to a schedule conflict with my frisbee team, so I was eager to show my stuff. Anyway, the format is 3 teams get scheduled, two teams play while the other refs the matches (best of 5), and you do a quick round-robin. Each game only lasts a few minutes. It's very intense. So what happens? We swept both series, and I never got out. Not even once. But that's not even the best part. Game 2 of our second series. We're down to our final out. Me. All alone, with our opponents entire team in. But did I panic? No. That's just where I wanted them. So I start working it. Taking them out. The first two went down quick. And the third soon followed. At this point, the two remaining guys on their team had the deer in the headlights look. A few nice dodges (and some dips, ducks, dives and dodges) with good throws and soon it was one on one. At this point, he was petrified of me. He just hugged the back while and I took my time. It took something like 20 throws to finally get him out because he didn't take any chances. But he knew he didn't stand a chance.
Ohh, the game's back on. Anyway, my shoulder is now in a new kind of pain and soreness. I put everything I had into getting those outs. Also, our office finally got shelving so things are starting to look nice in my new office. I'll post some pictures later.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Canto LVIII
So, as you can see there have been some changes. I'm still playing around a bit with all the settings and trying to get everything to link up smoothly. Someday, I promise. Anyway, here's a link to the homepage. But it's been another fun week. Truly joyous. sigh. Anyway, the Sox are rolling through the playoffs and look to be turning Cinderella back into a hand maiden pretty soon. Sucks to be you, Rockies fans! This weekend is going to be one of the biggest matchups in Autzen Stadium history, and you better believe that I'll be watching every second. There may also be a Big Lebowski viewing with a fellow Achiever.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Canto LVII
Okay, so 2 months is my break point. Well, it's been busy, but that can't fully explain away 2 months of ignoring my fan base. But as this is an update, I'll have to do a bullet list with short commentary. I doubt I'll be able to expand much more as that is what has kept me from posting sooner. I want to talk about too many things in too much detail, then I decide I don't have time right now, but in another day or two I'll have time and so on. So let's get down to business from where I last left off...
- Steph and I visited Portland for Sydney and Pete's wedding. Still didn't get to go to the ceremony, but the reception was a blast. It was so much fun seeing everyone and hearing stories. But in so many ways it was just like old times. It made me realize how much I miss everyone and just how special all the time we spent together was. I mean, I love where I'm at and what I'm doing now, but I still get nostalgic about The Cube. Who doesn't?
- After returning from Portland, we left a few days later to head down to Washington DC and Virginia to visit family, friends and see some of the sights. We had a great time, and Steph has lots and lots of pictures if you're interested. I do have one quick story. We were visiting the National Archives (which everyone should so every time they visit DC), and after hearing the guard talk about no flash photography and such, we get in line to see the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights. When we get to the Declaration of Independence, the person in front of us has a camcorder and turns on an extremely bright light on it so that it will show up better while filming it. We were stunned! I mean, this is a literally priceless document and national treasure that has already been so severely damaged by light that you can't even read most of it now, and he's just shining a bright light on it! WFT? After about 10 or 15 seconds of stunned looks from us, I speak up and ask him to not use his camcorder light on the, you know, invaluable document laid before us. I was freaking out for second. How can you do that to one of the most important documents in our history as a nation? AAAAAHHHHHH!!!
- Sadly, after that school started back up. I was hoping this term was going to be all research all the time. But I got switched and I'm now TA-ing this fall rather than next spring. And The Advisor is teaching a class, and to boost attendance, is making me take it. This is not what I want to do with my time, but I don't really have that much choice in the matter. Also, this is suppose to be the term where we start working towards a thesis. Oh God. Oh God Oh God Oh God. No, please no. What the hell am I doing? Actually, this really does deserve it's own entry, so I'll have to wait for a rainy day to talk about all this crap.
- I turned 27 = 3^3. Barring major advances in modern medicine, I don't think I'm going to make it to another N^N birthday, where N is an integer. Steph and I went out for a nice Italian dinner in the North End. I ordered a roast pork loin. I got back something that resembled the side of beef from the Flintstones. But it was delicious. And the following night, which was my birthday, a group of friends from school here went to a local pool bar and had a few beers and played a few rounds of pool. Very nice. All in all, a great birthday.
- At the beginning of this month, our building officially opened. There was a big dedication ceremony and lots of famous alums and donors were here seeing the place. Pretty much most of the work is done around here, so I guess it was the right time. The shelving for the graduate students in being installed this week and next, but we don't count for so much. Anyway, it was a nice party and a day off from real work. But the highlight of the day was meeting Steven Weinberg. Actually, this happened right when I first got in. I saw a friend, Ambar, near the entrance to the CTP, we were chatting when Eddie Farhi (the CTP director) walked by giving the Great Man a tour. Eddie said 'Here are some of graduate students. This is Ambar.' They shake hands as he says 'Hi, I'm Steve Weinberg.' 'And this is Eric Fitzgerald.' We shake hands as he says 'Steve Weinberg.' And just like that they were gone. I felt like saying 'Yes, I know who you are. And can I add that your theory of leptons, you know the one... Uh, the Standard Model. Yeah, that's great.' Did you know it's the most cited paper in high energy physics? I wanted to get my copy of his book signed, but I was too flustered by the whole thing. I met Steve Weinberg! SWEET!
- Well, I would like to talk about football some. Just the Ducks and the Pac-10. I don't really want to talk about the Jets except to say that they need to put Clemens in over Pennington. Give a Duck a chance! Pac-10 is looking scary this year. But it's very top-heavy, with 4 solid ranked teams, and a whole lot of not much under that. But with that said, ASU isn't going undefeated the rest of the way, and I doubt that there will even be a 1-loss team at the end of the season. But a 10-2 Oregon team going to the Rose Bowl wouldn't be a terrible thing. Looking around the college football landscape, can't say that anyone is looking too imposing, and a 2-loss Pac-10 team in the Rose Bowl should be favored. But these upsets are just crazy. I'm afraid to watch any Oregon game because who knows what will happen. Just don't start cheering in the middle of a game because the team in front of you in the polls lost... There's still a lot of football left.
- I'm on a frisbee team this fall. We haven't done that well, and I won't be able to play in the season-ending tourney this weekend, but I had a really good time. We run a mix of man and zone defense, and a switch between various offenses like a normal stack and a horizontal stack. I've never done any of this before, so it's been a real learning experience. But a lot of fun, and at least some exercise most weeks. So that's a plus.
- My brother visited a few weeks ago. He was on his way home after finishing up his masters in economics at the London School of Economics. So a few day layover in Boston on his way back to Portland to... live with our parents. Yes, he's living in my parent's basement. But we had a good time seeing the sights of Cambridge and Boston. We even did the whole Freedom Trail from the Commons to Bunker Hill. I think he appreciated more than the last time he was in Boston. That was something like 15 years ago, on a hot and humid day in July. Never a good time to sightsee outside in Boston.
- Teaching. Has sucked. I was thinking that I would be worried if one of my 8.01T students ran across this and realized how much I hate them for taking time away from doing work that I, you know, actually enjoy. But I don't care. I hate you hypothetical 8.01T student who reads this. I mean it. If you all died tomorrow, all I would think is 'sweet, the rest of the term is off!' I enjoy teaching when it's about a subject I find interesting and/or the students are interested. But I'm teaching Newtonian Mechanics to freshmen who need this class to graduate and could care less about the actual material. It sucks Big Time. Go to hell you little bastards. Did you know that many of them weren't even born in the same decade as me? Just creepy really.
- Other little things. Final Fantasy XII is on hold until winter break. I reached a reasonable place to pause, and took it. Blogging the Simpsons is on my mind, but I just need to find some time to do it. Again, maybe this winter? I've also started working on my own personal webpage, but I'll hold off on showing that off to the world right now. Although since I'm an MIT student, I'm pretty sure just about everyone here can figure out how to get to it right now. Time to lock that shit down. I'm using iWeb, but it's not giving me the control I would like. I have Dreamweaver, but I'm not really that comfortable with that much control. There has to be some happy medium right?
- I'll get to talking about work sometime in the near future. There's a lot of interesting things going on, though, and I'm really enjoying all of this right now.
- Steph and I visited Portland for Sydney and Pete's wedding. Still didn't get to go to the ceremony, but the reception was a blast. It was so much fun seeing everyone and hearing stories. But in so many ways it was just like old times. It made me realize how much I miss everyone and just how special all the time we spent together was. I mean, I love where I'm at and what I'm doing now, but I still get nostalgic about The Cube. Who doesn't?
- After returning from Portland, we left a few days later to head down to Washington DC and Virginia to visit family, friends and see some of the sights. We had a great time, and Steph has lots and lots of pictures if you're interested. I do have one quick story. We were visiting the National Archives (which everyone should so every time they visit DC), and after hearing the guard talk about no flash photography and such, we get in line to see the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights. When we get to the Declaration of Independence, the person in front of us has a camcorder and turns on an extremely bright light on it so that it will show up better while filming it. We were stunned! I mean, this is a literally priceless document and national treasure that has already been so severely damaged by light that you can't even read most of it now, and he's just shining a bright light on it! WFT? After about 10 or 15 seconds of stunned looks from us, I speak up and ask him to not use his camcorder light on the, you know, invaluable document laid before us. I was freaking out for second. How can you do that to one of the most important documents in our history as a nation? AAAAAHHHHHH!!!
- Sadly, after that school started back up. I was hoping this term was going to be all research all the time. But I got switched and I'm now TA-ing this fall rather than next spring. And The Advisor is teaching a class, and to boost attendance, is making me take it. This is not what I want to do with my time, but I don't really have that much choice in the matter. Also, this is suppose to be the term where we start working towards a thesis. Oh God. Oh God Oh God Oh God. No, please no. What the hell am I doing? Actually, this really does deserve it's own entry, so I'll have to wait for a rainy day to talk about all this crap.
- I turned 27 = 3^3. Barring major advances in modern medicine, I don't think I'm going to make it to another N^N birthday, where N is an integer. Steph and I went out for a nice Italian dinner in the North End. I ordered a roast pork loin. I got back something that resembled the side of beef from the Flintstones. But it was delicious. And the following night, which was my birthday, a group of friends from school here went to a local pool bar and had a few beers and played a few rounds of pool. Very nice. All in all, a great birthday.
- At the beginning of this month, our building officially opened. There was a big dedication ceremony and lots of famous alums and donors were here seeing the place. Pretty much most of the work is done around here, so I guess it was the right time. The shelving for the graduate students in being installed this week and next, but we don't count for so much. Anyway, it was a nice party and a day off from real work. But the highlight of the day was meeting Steven Weinberg. Actually, this happened right when I first got in. I saw a friend, Ambar, near the entrance to the CTP, we were chatting when Eddie Farhi (the CTP director) walked by giving the Great Man a tour. Eddie said 'Here are some of graduate students. This is Ambar.' They shake hands as he says 'Hi, I'm Steve Weinberg.' 'And this is Eric Fitzgerald.' We shake hands as he says 'Steve Weinberg.' And just like that they were gone. I felt like saying 'Yes, I know who you are. And can I add that your theory of leptons, you know the one... Uh, the Standard Model. Yeah, that's great.' Did you know it's the most cited paper in high energy physics? I wanted to get my copy of his book signed, but I was too flustered by the whole thing. I met Steve Weinberg! SWEET!
- Well, I would like to talk about football some. Just the Ducks and the Pac-10. I don't really want to talk about the Jets except to say that they need to put Clemens in over Pennington. Give a Duck a chance! Pac-10 is looking scary this year. But it's very top-heavy, with 4 solid ranked teams, and a whole lot of not much under that. But with that said, ASU isn't going undefeated the rest of the way, and I doubt that there will even be a 1-loss team at the end of the season. But a 10-2 Oregon team going to the Rose Bowl wouldn't be a terrible thing. Looking around the college football landscape, can't say that anyone is looking too imposing, and a 2-loss Pac-10 team in the Rose Bowl should be favored. But these upsets are just crazy. I'm afraid to watch any Oregon game because who knows what will happen. Just don't start cheering in the middle of a game because the team in front of you in the polls lost... There's still a lot of football left.
- I'm on a frisbee team this fall. We haven't done that well, and I won't be able to play in the season-ending tourney this weekend, but I had a really good time. We run a mix of man and zone defense, and a switch between various offenses like a normal stack and a horizontal stack. I've never done any of this before, so it's been a real learning experience. But a lot of fun, and at least some exercise most weeks. So that's a plus.
- My brother visited a few weeks ago. He was on his way home after finishing up his masters in economics at the London School of Economics. So a few day layover in Boston on his way back to Portland to... live with our parents. Yes, he's living in my parent's basement. But we had a good time seeing the sights of Cambridge and Boston. We even did the whole Freedom Trail from the Commons to Bunker Hill. I think he appreciated more than the last time he was in Boston. That was something like 15 years ago, on a hot and humid day in July. Never a good time to sightsee outside in Boston.
- Teaching. Has sucked. I was thinking that I would be worried if one of my 8.01T students ran across this and realized how much I hate them for taking time away from doing work that I, you know, actually enjoy. But I don't care. I hate you hypothetical 8.01T student who reads this. I mean it. If you all died tomorrow, all I would think is 'sweet, the rest of the term is off!' I enjoy teaching when it's about a subject I find interesting and/or the students are interested. But I'm teaching Newtonian Mechanics to freshmen who need this class to graduate and could care less about the actual material. It sucks Big Time. Go to hell you little bastards. Did you know that many of them weren't even born in the same decade as me? Just creepy really.
- Other little things. Final Fantasy XII is on hold until winter break. I reached a reasonable place to pause, and took it. Blogging the Simpsons is on my mind, but I just need to find some time to do it. Again, maybe this winter? I've also started working on my own personal webpage, but I'll hold off on showing that off to the world right now. Although since I'm an MIT student, I'm pretty sure just about everyone here can figure out how to get to it right now. Time to lock that shit down. I'm using iWeb, but it's not giving me the control I would like. I have Dreamweaver, but I'm not really that comfortable with that much control. There has to be some happy medium right?
- I'll get to talking about work sometime in the near future. There's a lot of interesting things going on, though, and I'm really enjoying all of this right now.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Canto LVI
Last week we had a party to celebrate our DoE review (funding for MIT), and they served lobster! It seems weird to have a party to rejoice being done with our funding review with an excessive and expensive party with lobsters for everyone and free booze. But it was fun. The ocean is delicious.
And I had my final medical exam of the summer, and everything is OK. I'll admit having your testicles felt up to make sure you don't have testicular cancer is a little awkward, especially when it's over he says "everything feels great."
Have you seen the commercials for the CBS show "Cane"? All I can think of is: "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women."
This was followed by an exciting weekend of... house cleaning! Everything got cleaned up, and Steph spent both days in the yard weeding and trimming all the various plants. She filled up 3 and 1/2 barrels of debris. Not bad! And I also made delicious cookies. Delicious, delicious chocolate chip cookies.
Did anyone see the ESPN article on over/under rated teams? Oregon came in as the #3 underrated team over the last 10 years, behind just WSU and Boise State. And the Pac-10 was far and away the most underrated conference. I think we should really appreciate how good we Duck fans have had it the last few years.
What does a corporation owe it's employees? As an employee, I think you owe work towards your employer. Your employer owes you a paycheck, and maybe some perks/benefits (like heath coverage). If you leave, give 2 weeks notice. If you get laid off (for non-performance related issues), a severance package of at least 2 weeks. What else? A green cookie on St. Patrick's Day?
And I had my final medical exam of the summer, and everything is OK. I'll admit having your testicles felt up to make sure you don't have testicular cancer is a little awkward, especially when it's over he says "everything feels great."
Have you seen the commercials for the CBS show "Cane"? All I can think of is: "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women."
This was followed by an exciting weekend of... house cleaning! Everything got cleaned up, and Steph spent both days in the yard weeding and trimming all the various plants. She filled up 3 and 1/2 barrels of debris. Not bad! And I also made delicious cookies. Delicious, delicious chocolate chip cookies.
Did anyone see the ESPN article on over/under rated teams? Oregon came in as the #3 underrated team over the last 10 years, behind just WSU and Boise State. And the Pac-10 was far and away the most underrated conference. I think we should really appreciate how good we Duck fans have had it the last few years.
What does a corporation owe it's employees? As an employee, I think you owe work towards your employer. Your employer owes you a paycheck, and maybe some perks/benefits (like heath coverage). If you leave, give 2 weeks notice. If you get laid off (for non-performance related issues), a severance package of at least 2 weeks. What else? A green cookie on St. Patrick's Day?
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Canto LV
Bad to the Bone by George Thorogood is a great song. It's just a great song. No ifs ands or buts. When Syd was talking about how at least Psych acknowledges that it goes over the top, which makes it enjoyable. That's the thing about going over the top. You really only have 2 options: just pretend like you didn't do/make something outrageous or just keep on going. This song loves the fact that it's over the top. What's with the sax solo? God only knows. But that's some great slide guitar. Just a great song.
I just switched my toothbrush, finally getting around to it after my dentist visit a few weeks ago. So for as long as I've been brushing, I've used the hard or medium bristle toothbrushes. But lately dentists have been saying to switch to the soft kind. They clean your teeth just as well, only they don't scrape away at your gums. So I finally switched to the soft kind. And you know what? They don't clean as well. At least, when I brush my teeth it doesn't feel like I'm getting a good cleaning. Later in the day, my teeth feel about the same, and they look about the same (although it's only been a week so far). But the brushing experience just isn't the same. And really, shouldn't we enjoy brushing? Or else I may just give up on the whole thing. Let the chips (or teeth) fall where they may.
I don't know if you've noticed, but are you ready for some football?!? Right now the Thursday Night preseason game between the 'Fins and the Chiefs is on in the background while I type this. And I'm excited. And did anyone see the game last week between the Jets and Falcons? With Joey Harrington taking on Kellen Clemens? Two former Oregon QBs leading their teams in the NFL. Joey will be starting for Atlanta, but Clemens was looking real good for the Jets. If Pennington gets injured (and I don't want to jinx it), Clemens could impress.
Oh, and how could I forget such a great day in my life? Today, my office mate and myself performed our first hack. We picked up a mini-fridge from a friend for our office using a Zipcar. He found a small bottle of perfume on the floor, which we presumed to be from some woman who dropped it earlier. So after we dropped off the fridge in our office and then drove the car back to it's spot, we sprayed it down the hall as we walked back to the office. And then when we got the elevator, and it all came out. I think we emptied half the bottle in there. HACK! Sweet. I suddenly feel like I belong to the MIT community.
I just switched my toothbrush, finally getting around to it after my dentist visit a few weeks ago. So for as long as I've been brushing, I've used the hard or medium bristle toothbrushes. But lately dentists have been saying to switch to the soft kind. They clean your teeth just as well, only they don't scrape away at your gums. So I finally switched to the soft kind. And you know what? They don't clean as well. At least, when I brush my teeth it doesn't feel like I'm getting a good cleaning. Later in the day, my teeth feel about the same, and they look about the same (although it's only been a week so far). But the brushing experience just isn't the same. And really, shouldn't we enjoy brushing? Or else I may just give up on the whole thing. Let the chips (or teeth) fall where they may.
I don't know if you've noticed, but are you ready for some football?!? Right now the Thursday Night preseason game between the 'Fins and the Chiefs is on in the background while I type this. And I'm excited. And did anyone see the game last week between the Jets and Falcons? With Joey Harrington taking on Kellen Clemens? Two former Oregon QBs leading their teams in the NFL. Joey will be starting for Atlanta, but Clemens was looking real good for the Jets. If Pennington gets injured (and I don't want to jinx it), Clemens could impress.
Oh, and how could I forget such a great day in my life? Today, my office mate and myself performed our first hack. We picked up a mini-fridge from a friend for our office using a Zipcar. He found a small bottle of perfume on the floor, which we presumed to be from some woman who dropped it earlier. So after we dropped off the fridge in our office and then drove the car back to it's spot, we sprayed it down the hall as we walked back to the office. And then when we got the elevator, and it all came out. I think we emptied half the bottle in there. HACK! Sweet. I suddenly feel like I belong to the MIT community.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Canto LIV
Well, nothing much to say. The Simpsons, Season 10 is out. Steph and I watched the MENSA episode (with Stephen Hawking, the world's smartest man!) and the one where Homer becomes the mayor's bodyguard (with Mark Hamill, aka Luke Skywalker!). Classic. We also finished up our 7 week journey (we skipped the weekend Ben was here) through all 6 Star Wars films. Man, Yoda really is annoying. Everything does not have to spoken backwards! Why, why?!? I think I'm more favorable to them overall now. Maybe I'm just getting soft. Soon we'll be starting up Babylon 5, Season 5. I'm now more than half way through FFXII. But as many of you know, I'm one of those Emerald Weapon completionist motherfuckers, so I'm ridiculously over powered right now. I can one-hit kill bosses. One weird thing about this game is that the Espers have crazy names. Oh sure, Shiva and Ifrit are in the game, but they're the names of airships. The Espers have names like "Cuchulainn, the Impure" or "Chaos, the Walker of the Wheel". I miss the regular names. Anyway, once I'm done, which is looking like a mid-September finish date, Blogging the Simpsons will start up. Should I put those posts here, or start a different blog?
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