In keeping with the trend of long overdue updates I decided to bring my blog up-to-date as well. Hopefully this won't be too incoherent seeing as it is being written between trying to get some simulations to run. First off, a movie review!
Just watched "Lucky Number Slevin" a few days ago. If you like comedy-thriller type movies then you will definitely like "Slevin." It is very cleverly written and the acting is fantastic. Get it. Get it now. Why are you still reading? Go get it.
Went to a departmental Halloween party this last weekend. It's an odd thing; nothing like anything that they never did back in undergrad. Several related departments get together to through a huge party at one of the professor's houses. Lots of people come, lots of drinking is done, a bunch of professors have a really good band. So yeah, I don't remember anything about that. I remember going to my friends house before that. I remember drinking there. I remember getting to the party. I was dressed as Caeser. All I had was a piece of cloth on and some boxers. It was cold. And then I woke up the next day. Been a long time since that happened and frankly, it was unpleasant.
You guys want to know what the best part of being a grad student is? It's a.... well you see there's.... the pay's really.... you get plenty of time to.... Ok, I'm stumped. Why does everyone say I should stay here? That's basically what I have been debating for this whole semester. If anyone has any thoughts about why getting a PhD is a good idea, I'm all ears.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Saturday, October 21, 2006
My life in short
These last two days give me the sneaking suspision that this is how the rest of my life is going to go:
Day 1:
-Spend almost all day either running around to meetings or coding. Get home around 10p. Head to the bars. Spend rest of evening in either drunken or drug-induced stupor.
Day 2:
-Spend all day coding. Get home around 10:30p. Spend rest of evening in drunken stupor.
Day X:
-See Day's 1 and 2.
Day 1:
-Spend almost all day either running around to meetings or coding. Get home around 10p. Head to the bars. Spend rest of evening in either drunken or drug-induced stupor.
Day 2:
-Spend all day coding. Get home around 10:30p. Spend rest of evening in drunken stupor.
Day X:
-See Day's 1 and 2.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Mark: 1, Midterms: 0
In keeping with titling my posts using some sort of score, I present today's. Despite my concerns that I was going to bomb my dynamical systems exam, I was the first one done. I am fairly certain I got 100%. Now if I could only stop get 70%s on my damn homeworks...
Monday, October 16, 2006
Life: 3.832589235982e+15326, Mark: 0
So I get to sit here while my stupid computer churns away struggling to find numerical answers to my stupid dynamical systems homework. And yes, it is due tomorrow. And no, I couldn't have started sooner so shut it.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Chipmunk: 1, Stupid Bird: 0
Ok, so the other day I was sitting in class and staring out the window into the courtyard like I always do. This particular class happens to be on the second floor of the building and so the view that I get is particularly nice and expansive; if it wasn't so expansive, I probably never would have noticed what happened next.
Unlike normal, the courtyard was fairly devoid of people (it being almost freezing out and all) and so I was watching this pigeon-sized bird slowly meander around the grass. Out of nowhere comes this chipmunk running full speed and heading directly for the bird. My first impulse when I see something like this, is that the chipmunk was startled by a person or the wind or frankly anything at all (since chipmunks are generally jumpy) and that it was simply attempting to get as far away from the offending object as possible. The bird seemed to share my assumptions. How wrong we both were...
Instead of bolting for the nearest bush, the chipmunk bolted directly at the bird and just about knocked it over. Luckily, the bird sensed something was wrong shortly before the crazed-chipmunk got to it and managed to flutter a bit out of the way. Obviously the bird thought the chipmunk had merely made a mistake and would continue on its merry way once the bird had the good sense to remove itself from the its path. Error number two on the part of the bird. The chipmunk, managing to defy physics and lose absolutely no momentum at all, turned around and set itself on a path for the bird again; it was at this point that I believe the bird realized that it was in trouble.
Again and again, the bird attempted to flutter out of the chipmunk's way only to be thwarted by the heat-seeking rodent. It was clear that perhaps the bird had made an impolite comment or two about the chipmunk's mother and the chipmunk was having none of it. I watched their intricate little dance of *dart-flutter*, *dart-flutter* around the courtyard for at least 30-45 seconds. Finally, the bird realizing that it had WINGS decided to actually fly OUT of the courtyard at which point the chipmunk, satisfied that it had defend whatever honor chipmunks have, returned to cowering under some bush.
Those of you who know me can attest to the fact that I am a dear lover of animals; I make whatever time I can to observe their behavior and try to understand what drives them. I can honestly say that I have NEVER seen a chipmunk chase anything much less a bird several times its size. I now hesitate to go outside for fear that one of these rabid, furry meat-bullets will come out of nowhere and attempt to take revenge on my shoes or perhaps ankles. Of course, I have been under a lot of stress recently; perhaps I hallucinated the entire thing...
Unlike normal, the courtyard was fairly devoid of people (it being almost freezing out and all) and so I was watching this pigeon-sized bird slowly meander around the grass. Out of nowhere comes this chipmunk running full speed and heading directly for the bird. My first impulse when I see something like this, is that the chipmunk was startled by a person or the wind or frankly anything at all (since chipmunks are generally jumpy) and that it was simply attempting to get as far away from the offending object as possible. The bird seemed to share my assumptions. How wrong we both were...
Instead of bolting for the nearest bush, the chipmunk bolted directly at the bird and just about knocked it over. Luckily, the bird sensed something was wrong shortly before the crazed-chipmunk got to it and managed to flutter a bit out of the way. Obviously the bird thought the chipmunk had merely made a mistake and would continue on its merry way once the bird had the good sense to remove itself from the its path. Error number two on the part of the bird. The chipmunk, managing to defy physics and lose absolutely no momentum at all, turned around and set itself on a path for the bird again; it was at this point that I believe the bird realized that it was in trouble.
Again and again, the bird attempted to flutter out of the chipmunk's way only to be thwarted by the heat-seeking rodent. It was clear that perhaps the bird had made an impolite comment or two about the chipmunk's mother and the chipmunk was having none of it. I watched their intricate little dance of *dart-flutter*, *dart-flutter* around the courtyard for at least 30-45 seconds. Finally, the bird realizing that it had WINGS decided to actually fly OUT of the courtyard at which point the chipmunk, satisfied that it had defend whatever honor chipmunks have, returned to cowering under some bush.
Those of you who know me can attest to the fact that I am a dear lover of animals; I make whatever time I can to observe their behavior and try to understand what drives them. I can honestly say that I have NEVER seen a chipmunk chase anything much less a bird several times its size. I now hesitate to go outside for fear that one of these rabid, furry meat-bullets will come out of nowhere and attempt to take revenge on my shoes or perhaps ankles. Of course, I have been under a lot of stress recently; perhaps I hallucinated the entire thing...
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Business schmisiness
So I am strongly leaning towards a career in industry after graduation and not one in academics. My experience so far of academic research has shown it to be focused on nitpicky (and, in my opinion, generally irrelevant) details and not on achieving functional products that actually help progress humanity. It also seems that most of a professor's time is spent answering to people that have given him/her or will possible give him/her money; although I understand why this is necessary I honestly have no desire to live a life like that. Industry research seems much more focused on useful products (obviously since they must in some way be marketable) and the decisions about where the money comes from is left to people who are interested in those details. While I realize that there is a significant trade-off between the two, with academics being more free to choose their own path than industry researchers, I am not sure that I need/want that sort of freedom in my life right now (or in the near future). This is not to say that I am completely dismissing the idea of an academic career at any point but at the moment I feel as though the negatives of such a job outweight the positives.
With this in mind, I have begun looking into possible companies that would provide me with the sort of career that I want. Interestingly enough, it seems that business consulting firms have the tendancy to hire PhDs in a wide variety of disciplines to perform many interesting research tasks. While it seems odd to join a company that is predominantly focused on business in order to do science, that does seem to be the way in which the world is heading. In many respects, this is not all that odd; Honda is one of the leading sources of robotics research in the world and yet their prime business is unrelated to that field (at least not directly related at this time).
On a different note, today's prediction for the future is that we will see a dramatic rise in gas prices after the November elections (within a few weeks) regardless of their outcome. If I had to place a number on it, I would say at least $0.30 and more like around $0.50 or more. I hope that this prediction is wrong because if it is right, I do not like the implications that it entails.
With this in mind, I have begun looking into possible companies that would provide me with the sort of career that I want. Interestingly enough, it seems that business consulting firms have the tendancy to hire PhDs in a wide variety of disciplines to perform many interesting research tasks. While it seems odd to join a company that is predominantly focused on business in order to do science, that does seem to be the way in which the world is heading. In many respects, this is not all that odd; Honda is one of the leading sources of robotics research in the world and yet their prime business is unrelated to that field (at least not directly related at this time).
On a different note, today's prediction for the future is that we will see a dramatic rise in gas prices after the November elections (within a few weeks) regardless of their outcome. If I had to place a number on it, I would say at least $0.30 and more like around $0.50 or more. I hope that this prediction is wrong because if it is right, I do not like the implications that it entails.
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