the eric the on BS

An email from my dad

2006-06-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

Subject: Impeachment

I heard a radio ad about this. Check it out.

www.impeachteam.com

The Worst President in History?

2006-05-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

Calamitous presidents, faced with enormous difficulties -- Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover and now Bush -- have divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off. In each case, different factors contributed to the failure: disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders and military setbacks, executive misconduct, crises of credibility and public trust. Bush, however, is one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures -- an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities. Repeatedly, Bush has undone himself, a failing revealed in each major area of presidential performance.

An excerpt from "The Worst President in History?" by Sean Wilentz, 4 May 2006 issue of Rolling Stone. It's an interesting read, wherever you may stand.

How many times can a man turn his head?

2006-04-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

Joining Illinois, California has become the second state in which a proposal to impeach President Bush has been introduced in the state legislature. And this one includes Cheney as well....
The resolution, in the words of [CA Assemblyman Paul] Koretz's press release, "bases the call for impeachment upon the Bush Administration intentionally misleading the Congress and the American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional authority by Federalizing the National Guard; conspiring to torture prisoners in violation of the 'Federal Torture Act' and indicating intent to continue such actions; spying on American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and covering up the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American citizens without charge or trial."

Looks like somebody in the House has been paying attention to the news lately and decided to start doing something about it. Way to go Illinois! Koretz had some choice words on the subject.

At both the state and national levels, we will be paying for the Bush Administration's illegal actions and terrible lack of judgment and competence for decadesÂnot only in the billions of dollars wasted on the war and welfare for the rich, but in the worldwide loss of respect for America and Americans. Bush and Cheney must be impeached and removed from office before they undertake even deadlier misdeeds, such as the use of nuclear weapons. There are no bounds to their willingness to ignore the Constitution and world opinionÂwe can't afford to wait for the next disaster and hope that we can survive it.

For more info, here are the articles I found about this stuff. The second one contains the actual resolution.

California Becomes Second State to Introduce Bush Impeachment

Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell

Vermont lawmakers to call for Bush impeachment

It's high time we start seeing some checks and balances. It all comes back to that old Dylan song.

Coming soon to a school near you: "I am job"

2006-04-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

The Bass came up for a visit this weekend. His dorm buddies came down as well. Good food, good friends, and good times.

I made my second trip up to the Bay Area this weekend for an interview at my uncle's school. I met with two other administrators and the current physics teacher for multiple interviews. The first lady really liked hearing about lesson planning using backward design. After talking with her for a while, I met with the physics teacher and we talked for a lot longer than we were supposed to, as my uncle was proctoring the test he was giving his AP kids at the time. It was pretty cool to get to throw ideas back and forth with somebody who's just a couple years ahead of me in the education game. I was told the last lady I met with would really grill me. She asked some good questions about grading and students not turning in their homework as well as cleverly disguised pedagogy stuff. I think she really liked hearing that I'm into this inquiry business. Now I've just got to figure out how to use it well.

But that's neither here nor there. My uncle called on my drive home today to tell me they wanted to offer me the job. Kick ass. I've got to call him back tomorrow and let him know my decision.

Looks like I'll be leaving the central coast for the city in the not too distant future.

Don't Stop Believin'

2006-04-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went up to the Bay Area to visit my sister and aunt and uncle. It's a much easier visit, now that they're all living under the same roof. As it turns out, my uncle's school is currently looking for a physics teacher for next year. It's all quite handy, as I intend to be a physics teacher next year.

So next week, while the school at which I'm currently student teaching is on Spring Break, I'll be back up in the Bay Area for an interview and meeting of the faculty. I expect those of you reading while bored at work will shortly be dropping me a line offering your best wishes and good luck. Or not, but remember, I know who you are. I might just know more than you think.

Wow, two trips to the Bay in two weeks. I bet there's a Journey song about that.

Trapped in the Closet

2006-03-25T22:55:00.000-08:00

Here's the aforementioned Scientology episode of South Park, brought to you by YouTube.

Under pressure from some "unknown" influence, the episode was been pulled from repeat rotation. The following day, this statement was issued in Variety.

So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!

-Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu

Hail Xenu indeed.

Well I'll be a son of a thetan

2006-03-21T23:14:00.000-08:00

I read an article in the March 9 issue of Rolling Stone this morning, an article about Scientology. It was an interesting read to say the least. From what now gather, Scientology claims our souls are immortal space aliens called "thetans" that were brought to Earth by "an evil galactic warlord named Xenu (who) controlled seventy-six planets in this corner of the galaxy." Of course they don't tell you about this until you've paid for years of "auditing" and been invited into the upper echelons of the church. All that stuff from the South Park episode appears to be true.

But all space aliens, e-meters, and brain washing aside, this church truly has something new to offer: Jedi powers. That's right, Jedi-friggin-powers.

(Operating Thetans) are Scientology's elite -- enlightened beings who are said to have total "control" over themselves and their environment. OTs can allegedly move inanimate objects with their minds, leave their bodies at will and telepathically communicate with, and control the behavior of, both animals and human beings. At the highest levels, they are allegedly liberated from the physical universe, to the point where they can psychically control what Scientologists call MEST: Matter, Energy, Space and Time.

Man, and all Catholicism offers us is eternal bliss -- and even that's not a sure thing. We've got to live with all the guilt while we're here on Earth with our immortal souls. All I want is the power to kill a yak from two hundred yards away... with mind bullets!

That's telekinesis, Kyle. How 'bout the power to move you.

I am a billiards god

2006-03-10T19:06:00.000-08:00

In my billiards class yesterday, I sank the nine ball on the break in a game of nine ball, thereby winning the game in one shot. It may have been luck, but I still rule.

Skinny dippin' in a sea of Lee, er, sulfur-water

2006-02-23T18:14:00.000-08:00

"Let's go backpacking next weekend in Big Sur. We can do Syke's Trail," Ed and Jack said.

"Sounds good," I said.

"The weather's going to suck on the way in: thunderstorms and maybe even hail," they warned.

"We can handle a little weather on the hike in, as long as it's just the first day," I thought outloud.

It snowed. And then it continued to rain into the next morning.

We day hiked from our camp to the hot springs. Nothing makes you feel more alive than skinny dipping in natural hot springs with a bunch of people you've only just met. Well, maybe not, but soaking in the hot springs was really nice, albeit a touch cramped.

In the end, we all ached to some degree and good times were had by all. We met some cool people up there and hung out for the weekend with our new friends. I got my camera out on the last day and chronicled our hike out (you too can revel in the natural beauty that is Big Sur country here). And now it's back to your regularly scheduled life in civilization. It sure is nice to get out once in a while.

UPDATE: John's account and photos of the festivities can be found on his website.

{not crazy}

2006-02-13T01:36:00.000-08:00

So I just watched {proof}. It was a very good movie that brought up some stuff worth thinking a little about.

First off, dude and chick were both crazy. It made me think way back to the Dark Days of my undergrad -- there was at least a year there were I was fairly sure I was going crazy. But then at the same time I was convinced that I couldn't be crazy because crazy people think they're sane. Admitting to it disproves it, kind of one of those Catch 22's we've all heard so much about. Anyway, crazy or no, the Dark Days taught the lot of us one thing if nothing else: Sleep deprivation is bad for you. Dreaming in Excel or about dating gamma functions, trying to determine the complex conjugate of the alarm clock to find out if the bread maker's done, writing four qlabs and only being conscious for two of them... none of this is healthy.

One of the other interesting points brought up was how creative minds do their best work by their mid-twenties. In that case, I'm already on my way out and arguably the best work I've done was to move out of Ohio. Stowe's wall says the truly educated never graduate. In that case, maybe I shouldn't have finished my senior project after all. Oh well, at least when I enter the work force next year, I'll have summers off. Two and a half months to get the crazy back out of my system. There's always that to look forward to.

Only Homer could put it so well

2006-01-29T23:57:00.000-08:00

Oh, glory of glories. Oh heavenly testament to the eternal majesty of God's creation.
Holy macaroni!

So my roommate Dan brought home the Doom DVD last night. It was entertaining for those of us that still occasionally dream in Doom. The unrated version offers a seamless five and a half minutes of the first person POV.

But this post is anything but a movie review. This post is about me wanting to play Doom again.

It has indeed been a while since I'd last played The Game, but watching the background in the special features, I still recognized a majority of the levels. So I sent out today to see if I could find a copy of the first game, before it became Ultimate Doom. Little did I know what majesty was in story for me -- majesty rivaled only by the Burninator himself.

To make a long (and uninteresting) story short, the source code for The Game was released way back when and my new heroes, some super nerds, have modded and ported the game to new levels. This evening, Peter, Dan, and I fragged the shit out of each other on Westdeth using my new favorite game redux Doomsday. Move over Sim City 4, the super shotgun calls. Who are we to ignore it?

ED Classes

2005-11-29T18:59:00.000-08:00

This pretty much sums up the classes required to get a teaching credential.

JackBass9: I m not sure I understand all of this
the eric the: which parts?
JackBass9: what is it
the eric the: you got me
JackBass9: like did you write all of this
the eric the: she calls it a "management plan"
the eric the: i wrote the parts not in italics
JackBass9: ah
the eric the: that's the stuff i haven't done yet
JackBass9: i get it now
JackBass9: its busywork

It's all busywork. Very little will be used when I get my own class.

And now, to do all the work I've put off all quarter.

That was just pillow talk, baby

2005-11-11T12:47:00.000-08:00

I don't care who you are, Ash kicks ass. And while I'm at it, zombies are cool, too.

Gimme some sugar baby.

Which B-Movie Badass Are You?

Evolutionary (or elementary?) Misconceptions

2005-11-02T01:11:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this today and I found it topical, considering the reading for my methods class was on common misconceptions about evolution. On topic or not, it's kinda funny. The comments aren't the most thought provoking, but it's always interesting to see how long it takes before Godwin's Law has to be invoked.

Requiescat in pace, Coach

2005-10-26T00:17:00.000-07:00

My soccer coach from my junior college days passed on last Thursday. As I lack the words to do him justice, I will say merely the old cliché words that he was a great man and he will surely be missed. Seriously though, he was a great guy and I'm sorry to see him go.

George "Coach" Rosales
George "Coach" Rosales, 62, of Camarillo died on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005, at UCLA Medical Center after battling complications of leukemia. George, better known as Coach Rosales to all who knew him, was born March 30, 1943, in Maywood, Calif., to Enrique and Bertha Rosales. He grew up in Maywood and graduated from Pius X High School in Downey, Calif.

George continued his education at California State University, where he received his bachelor's degree in education and earned his master's degree in school administration. George began his teaching career at Luther Burbank Junior High School in Burbank, Calif. George continue his career at John Burroughs High School, where he was also the football coach. In the 1980s, he served as football coach at Glendale Community College, Rio Hondo Community College and St. Francis High School. In 1989, George was named coach of the year and was selected as the Daily News All-Star Coach in 1982. In 1991, he became the head football coach at Ventura Community College and was also instructor of physical education.

George retired from his teaching career in May 2005, but continued to coach football for L.A. Valley Community College in 2004 and 2005. George was inducted into the John Burroughs High School Hall of Fame in 2005. George was an active member of St. Bede's Catholic Church in La Canada and Padre Serra Parish in Camarillo. He loved to spend time with his family and visiting with friends and was looking forward to many years of travel during retirement. The coach touched many lives on and off the field and will be dearly missed.

Road Trip

2005-10-14T01:39:00.000-07:00

I'm heading to Reno in the morning with Nate, Zack, and Ed. Wild adventures are sure to ensue. In the meantime, feel free to keep yourself busy with this little gem from the days of yore.

A Sad Day

2005-10-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

Sunday was indeed a sad, sad day. Just over two years ago, my youngest brother, Peter, was driving my Nova to school when it caught fire. To make a long story short, the firewall didn't do it's job. The engine compartment and the interior burned. There was no real permanent damage done, so for nearly two years, I lived with the dream of undertaking the huge project of rebuilding the car.

Over the summer, I came to the painful decision that after two years and no work having been done, I probably wasn't going to get around to the car anytime soon. I had neither the time nor the money for such a huge job. With a heavy dose of grief, I decided it was time to sell my car to somebody that would give the car the love and attention it rightfully deserved.

On Sunday, I sold my Nova. The new owner intends to rebuild the car with his son. He'd been looking for a worthy Nova for about a year and a half and he was very understanding. He said he was very sorry I had to go through this but, if it was any consolation, I was making his son really happy. It was a nice touch, but I'm still sorry I had to let my car go.

Eric's '69 Nova
1998 - 2005

Post for Chris

2005-09-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

Uscar837: update your blog bitch
the eric the: i'll get on that later
the eric the: i gotta do some reading tonight
Uscar837: ok ok
the eric the: stupid education classes making me read not-physics texts

Chris, I'd like to first refer you to my June 29 post, paragraph one, in particular. But yeah, I've been going to education classes lately and they're definitely different. I'll write something about that later. Right now, I'ma do my reading for class tomorrow.

Things to come

2005-08-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

In just a few short weeks it'll be time for school once again. This time is gonna be different. I'm looking forward to something of an inversion to the guy:girl ratio in my exodus from physics to education classes. I'll probably head up to SLO next Monday or Tuesday, as I've got to study for the CSET on the tenth and there's no way I can study here in Ojai. I think it may actually be relatively difficult, as I don't know much about chemistry and I don't know much biology. And on top of that, they may want numeric answers to the physics problems. It's been a long time since I've used a calculator and I doubt the loaners will be in RPN. And so I'll be studying.

The last day of camp we had our Battle of the Bands. Peter and I rocked some camper socks off with our mind-blowing cover of the D's Tribute. Hopefully I'll get a copy of our video up before I leave. The girl counselors really want a copy of their version of Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

Lately, I've been out of work, with more free time than is probably healthy. So I've been nerding out and playing Guild Wars a little too regularly. Speaking of war, the family is staging a one on the giant mice that have taken up residence in our backyard. Even the family dog is doing her fair share.

Ginger: 4
Gigantic Mice: 0

Surf Camp Rules

2005-08-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

I'ma copy Chris here and throw up a quick highlight reel from the past month or so. Here goes...

While cleaning out Grandpa's garage, Dad found his grandfather's WWI uniform — complete with the gasmask and its instructions.
With my fellow counselors at my side, we rocked the ORD Talent Show to new heights of rocking, covering The Beatles and Green Day plus lip/guitar syncing to Europe and Limozeen. One of the CITs even pulled off the dance sequence from a skit by Pedro Sanchez.
I finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I may have predicted some of the parts, but I didn't really think they'd happen. Book VII is gonna be great.
I think my cousin Tim finally convinced his insurance to allow him to get he chemo done at UCLA. Now they're trying to tell him to get a different treatment than what all the doctors there recommend.
We saw a pod of dolphins playing around at the beach yesterday at Surf Camp. Later in the day, I stepped on a sea urchin. Those little spinedies hurt. And so does Hydrogen Peroxide.

Surf Camp really is a kick ass job. I may not actually know how to surf and the wave may have a tendency to suck, but I'm still getting paid to try and surf them.

Next week, I'm driving out to Colorado with my mom to drop off a car for my brother. My nephew's getting baptized while we're out there. Should be a good time. And now, back to my regularly scheduled Guild Wars.

Astrology is stupid

2005-07-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

This is incredible: some Russian woman is trying to sue NASA for crashing a probe into Comet Tempel 1 the other day, claiming it screwed up her horoscope.

It is obvious that elements of the comet's orbit, and correspondingly the ephemeris, will change after the explosion, which interferes with my astrology work and distorts my horoscope. (Reuters)

I'd love to see the evidence that supports this.

Marina Bai has sued the U.S. space agency, claiming the Deep Impact probe that punched a crater into the comet Tempel 1 late Sunday "ruins the natural balance of forces in the universe," the newspaper Izvestia reported Tuesday. (Associated Press)

People who take astrology seriously... well, something ought to be done about them. What a load of crap. Stinky crap. Is it surprising at all that NASA representatives couldn't be reached to comment?

I guess they don't have anything nice to say.

Cool stuff

2005-06-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Let's see.... Oh right, so I came to a "profound" realization the other day: I put a whole lot into this blog when I was back in Ohio not doing much and I put very little into it now that I'm back home and doing a bunch o' stuff. On that note, I won't bother updating so much anymore so as to give the impression that I'm doing loads of cool stuff.

Speaking of cool stuff, I went to San Francisco last weekend to visit my sister. It was pride weekend. We watched the "Dyke March" (I'm not sure I can actually call it that, but that's what my sister called it, so screw it). The march was led by a troop of (aptly named) Dykes on Bikes. Quite an experience for this small towner, I tell you what. And tomorrow we head out for Boston to my cousin's wedding. I gotta come up with another big city to hit up the following weekend to keep the streak going.

And as long as I'm talking about cool stuff, I have quite possibly the coolest summer job around. Here's an IM snippet:

Eatenpee: how are the kiddies
the eric the: the kiddies are fine
the eric the: turns out i forgot to put sun screen on my feet monday
the eric the: and now my feet are incredibly sunburned
the eric the: swollen and blistered
Eatenpee: awesome
Eatenpee: so your job entails driving a bus to the beach and then sitting there?
the eric the: that was monday
the eric the: tuesday i put on a wetsuit and helped the little ones out
the eric the: and today i started learning to surf

We have five campers, three adults, and a big van gassed up by the city. Yes yes, surf camp rules.

Moving, geeking, & amputating

2005-06-08T23:42:00.000-07:00

So my stuff finally got here from Ohio. "Went alright. Dude's car got a little dinged up." I spent this afternoon acquiring a storage hooha in Grover Beach. Now all that's left is finding a place to live and for the admissions people at Cal Poly to admit me. They still need my transcripts from BGSU and proof that I'm signed up to take the CBEST.

On that note, the fine people of the Graduate College of BG may finally be about to take that damn hold off my record. I emailed Dean Bailey (of Cal Poly's COSAM) and asked him to email Dean Lawrence (of BGSU's Graduate College as to my status as a student at Cal Poly. I have it from Dean Bailey himself that

Eric has indeed fulfilled all requirements for his BS degree in Physics..... I can confirm that he is currently considered a Cal Poly graduate.

Rock on Dean Bailey and take that Dean Lawrence.

With summer damn near all upons, I've been undertaking several very important projects. First off, my cousin and her two kids are moving in, and, consequently, Fast Dave and I have been doing a lot of moving, packing, cleaning, patching, and painting up the upstairs. Also, as previously mentioned, I've been doing some moving of my own stuff up to the SLO area in preparations for my upcoming credentialing endeavors. And lastly, and arguably most importantly, I've been playing an awful lot of Guild Wars lately. Geeking out, as Chris calls it, is good. It's a fun game, and plays a lot like the old Diablo, only better. I've spent a lot of time with my friend Ethan, among other friends and family, taking care of those pesky Charr hoards. Playing with people you know, it's a lot easier to convince yourself that you're not actually wasting time, you're socializing. At least, that's what I've been telling myself. And so far, it's been working pretty damn well.

On a final note, my cousin Tim, who's older than my by only a couple weeks, was recently diagnosed with cancer. As I understand it, he'd been going to the doctor for some ten years complaining of foot pain. The doctor had been telling him it was merely a sore tendon, which is apparently common in the family. It got to the point where he could go to work, much less walk, without serious pain. He ended up down at the UCLA Medical Center, where they decided he had a malignant tumor that had wrapped itself around a tendon on the underside of his foot. He went through a PET scan to see if anything had spread, but his kind of cancer can take up to two years before anything spreads noticeably. The doctor decided Tim had to lose his right leg below the knee and take on some seriously intense Chemotherapy. He took a couple weeks to psyche himself up for it, and on Monday he went in for his amputation. The surgery took a little longer than they thought, but I hear he's doing fine now and resting up for his trip home on Friday. He'll be well enough to go to Boston for his brother's wedding in July and then he starts six to nine months of the heaviest Chemo they do the following week.

It's been a pretty crazy trip. This cancer and amputation thing has gotten me thinking about stuff I'd never truly thought about before. Tim's less than a month older than me and his mom told me the survival rates. Pretty intense stuff. At this point, there's one really burning question: what do they do with his leg? I mean, when he went in, it was a nearly perfect leg. A couple hours later, some saw bones is holding a former leg. I mean, you can't just throw that kind of thing out. I imagine they'll cut out the tumor and submit it to various probes, but could he ask to keep his leg? Is that the sort of thing you could get embalmed and keep by the mantle?

It's all so weird.

Moving: Phases 2 & 3

2005-05-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

So yeah, Moving: Phase 2 (packing) took a lot longer than I thought it would. We managed to get a lot of stuff packed into the five linear feet I rented from ABF U-Pack. The one thing I forgot about having to work with other people is that they tend to keep hours closer to normal business hours. But we got all the stuff in there before seven and they were cool about it. And then on Wednesday morning, Fast Dave and I stuffed my car as full as humanly possible with the remaining stuff. I had no idea I had so much crap. We ended up throwing out a lot of stuff and I had to leave behind a microwave and my vacuum cleaner because they wouldn't fit in the car. I think I threw out my old WoW OL shirts too. Too bad, really.

As for Moving: Phase 3, it was a long time in the car. We stopped the first night in Kearney, Nebraska and then made it to Denver the following morning. Colorado was nice. I got to see my nephew for the second time and he's gotten a lot bigger. He's almost a regular person now, rolling over without any help and sitting all by himself. Plus, and this is the part Chris isn't going to like, we went and saw Star Wars that night. It wasn't my usual midnight opening night showing, but it was still good times. The movie was way better than the first two prequels. There was some painful and crummy dialogue (especially from Yoda towards the end) and some of the "emotional" parts were kinda weak, but the many light saber duels and miscellaneous fight scenes more than made up that. For what it's worth, if you haven't checked out the Clone Wars cartoons yet, you really should. After the movie, there was a disagreement between my brothers and myself as to whether or not Leia kissed Luke right before they swung over that bridge that was out while rescuing Leia from the Death Star in Episode IV. I'd like to point out that I was right. Tom had even watched Episode IV recently specifically for that part and he was still wrong. I rule.

The rest of the drive was more or less uneventful. At one point Dave asked me how I was so hot. I laughed for a long time while he tried to figure out how to word it another way. That was in Wyoming. In Utah, we stayed a night at Dave's friend's place. She was off at a party when we got there. She came home for about ten minutes to unlock the door and make sure we got settled before she went back to her party. Those crazy Mormons. There were some seriously odd rules for her apartment complex too: no alcohol, coffee, or tea allowed in the apartment and no members of the opposite sex allowed in rooms other than the kitchen or living room. Specifically, "the use of bathroom areas by members of the opposite sex is not appropriate unless emergency or civility dictate otherwise and then only if the safety, privacy, and sensitivity of other residents are not jeopardized."

And now I'm back home in Ojai. I've talked to the boss at the Rec so as long as I can get the license, I'll have a sweet job. On a sadder note, Mom's turtle Igor died the other day and I had to throw him out this afternoon. And on an even weaker note, I have yet to talk to real people at Cal Poly to explain to them that it's ridiculous for them to stop considering my application at this point. They want CBEST score and finger prints. I've explain to a couple people's voice mails that it'd be ridiculous to ask those things of me at this point since I've been living in Ohio for the past year and couldn't very well stop by the court house to get finger printed nor take a California-based standardized test. Hopefully I can get in touch with somebody real soon and they agree that an extension would be reasonable. And I may end up driving down to Monrovia tomorrow to check out a Mini my sister wants to buy.

Moving: Phase 1 completed

2005-05-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

Moving: Phase 1 is completed in its entirety. As I see it, there were two main components: phases 1a and 1b.

Moving: Phase 1a consisted of procuring Fast Dave from the local Greyhound station. That went off without a hitch. I got to the station a full ten minutes before the bus's scheduled arrival time, which I consider to be a feat quite worthy of note in and of itself. One of the workers tried to tell me my car would be towed for parking in Greyhound's lot, but he thought I was heading off to town and not inside to wait. And wait I did. Half an hour later, twenty minutes late for those of you who are counting, Dave's bus arrived and we drove back home.

Before commencing Moving: Phase 1b, we played around with our respective computers. I got to set up the wireless part of my router now that there was a wireless receiver to test it. As it turns out, Dave found this DOS Box program, a DOS emulator that allowed us to play some old games we used to play for hours back in the day and have since found on this site. We got in some good OMF before we decided to get started on Moving: Phase 1b.

Moving: Phase 1b meant a trip to Cedar Point. That was a good time. Their website says Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Sundays are their slow days. It also says May, June, and September are their slow months. They must still be in preseason mode because they were only open until 8pm, but as it happens, that was more than enough time to go on all the rides at least once. The park itself seemed smaller than Magic Mountain, but the rides were easily as good, if not better. My first roller coaster in longer than I can remember was the green one. Man, it was a good one: inverted with our feet swinging. We were both a little dizzy walking away from it. Good times. After that, we hit up the red one. Not nearly as good as the green one. Also, if I were to go back, I most definitely wouldn't go on the stand-up one. Not only was in not very man friendly, it banged your head into the safety bar enough to make your ears really hurt. On the other hand, the red and white one was good times. No loops, but enough whoopty-do's to get your stomach feeling funny by the end. And it had some fun tunnels. Speaking of tunnels, there was another one there that was all indoors. They offered 3D glasses for a dollar for that ride. What I don't understand is that is was mostly dark with occasional black light and day glow paint. I'm not too sure the 3D glasses would've changed much. And last but not least came the blue one. This one was seriously cool and seriously tall. Also, it was the only ride in the park that we couldn't just walk on. We were in line for a full fifty minutes, while for every other ride, we merely had to wait for them to open the gate so we could sit down. It was really tall: the second hill was high enough to be the first hill on any other roller coaster. When we came back for a second ride later in the day, we saw a car stuck just past the halfway mark up the first incline. Pretty crazy. It's not everyday you get to see a broken roller coaster right when it breaks. We were pretty close to being on the ride at that point too. I felt mighty bad for the people stuck way the hell up there, but as the workers put it, at least they had a nice view of Lake Erie. Rather than wait for them to fix it and be the ultimate thrill seekers by going on the ride after it was fixed, we chickened out by go back and riding the green one another six or seven times in a row. It was awesome. It seemed to get faster every time and we, in turn, got dizzier every time. Tons of fun.

Oh yeah, and we saw a bunch of kids there with T-shirts on for the 13th annual Cedar Point Physics Trip. Very cool. Their shirts even acknowledged it being the World Year of Physics. Well done guys.

And on that note, it's about time to get started on Moving: Phase 2 — packing my crap up to put in the truck. Sweet.

CA REDEM VALUE » Beer Snob Edition

2005-05-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

I decided today was a great day to take in the pile of bottles I've been saving to the recycle joint behind Kroger. My plan had been to save it all up and the buy more beer with the money I got for my recycling endeavor. But as I was unloading all the bottles from under my sink, I remembered that I was in Ohio, and they don't give you the 5¢ back when you return the empties for recycling. Granted, they don't charge you that same 5¢ when you buy the full bottles, but that's beside the point. I wanted my free money.

In my efforts to be a good recycler, I got everything out, sorted the glass bottles by color, and crushed all the cans. Turns out when I got there, everything went into the same bin. But it wasn't a complete waste of time; I took some pictures after I sorted everything. I'll leave it up to you to decide if they're art… or just trash.

I had the most empty Boddingtons. It's really a fine beer.

Everything I tried from the Unibroue brewery was simply great, especially La Fin du Monde and Trois Pistoles.

As long as I'm on the subject, I also highly recommend Wexford's Irish Cream Ale, Murphy's Stout, and Duvel. And of course, you can never go wrong with a good Guinness.

The clouds are charging

2005-05-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

Looks like somebody got to the place we wanted in SLO before we could. That's too bad. But we've got other prospects, and things are still coming up Milhouse.

It's getting awfully close to moving time. I reserved a truck today. Turns out there are companies, or at least one, that'll move my stuff across country for the same price, if not cheaper than a rental truck. If all goes well, and I don't see any big reason for it not to, I may end up highly recommending ABF U-Pack to anyone moving out of state or at least five hundred miles. The best part is there are no more worries about Fast Dave and me driving across country together separately. Hopefully we'll be able to keep each other awake enough to stay on the road and out of oncoming traffic. With any luck, we'll also avoid deer carcasses.

I guess it's getting close to time to pack my junk up. I don't have too much so I've been putting it off. Maybe this weekend I'll throw some books in boxes. Maybe some kitchen stuff too. But for now, I can still relax. In fact, I think the couch is calling. I've got a blanket, a book, and a beer calling. And if that's not enough, the clouds have been charging up all afternoon. In the not too distant future, there should be some lightning followed shortly by thunder.

I'm going to miss Mother Nature's light shows.

Everything's coming up Milhouse!

2005-05-09T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I spent my first official day of freedom (unemployment if you want to be a jerk) cleaning up the ol' apartment. My whiteboard's covered in a long list of stuff I've got to get done before I can move and I've been adding more to it than I've been crossing off it. I suppose that'll change soon enough. I have yet to actually start packing but I did sacrifice many a brain cell to cleaning chemicals this afternoon. "Fume free," my ass. How could it possibly be lemon scented without fumes? And about that lemony scent: I got good and high cleaning my oven and I never once thought I was inhaling the pleasant citrusy aroma of fresh lemons. But man did that stuff cut through the caked-on blackness that was the bottom of my oven. And my precious neurons.

So yeah, about leaving.... Thursday will be my last day with the Achievers. Fourth grade science has been a lot of fun and I'll certainly miss the little guys on some level, but at the same time, it's definitely time to go. There's some work in lab I'd also like to do before I hit the road, but that all depends on if I can convince somebody to unlock another lab for me so I can prep a couple samples. It's not really a high priority, but I am curious how one of the skutterudites turned out. Also, Fast Dave and I are going to try to hit up Cedar Point before we leave. It's reportedly the best amusement park in the world (that remains to be seen), so we almost have to check it out while I'm still in the area. I'd also like to get up to Canada one more time, just because I can.

From what I can gather online, renting a moving truck is going to be awfully expensive. But those prices are just online quotes. I'ma make some calls tomorrow and see what real people have to say. Hopefully they'll be a lot cheaper.

It sure is going to be nice to be back in California again. It looks like I've got a pretty sweet job lined up for the summer. All I have to do is get a Class B driver's license. While the Ojai Rec Center says they're not looking to hire any more counselors for the Summer Camp, the bossman may hire me on as a driver for the Surf Camp. The job entails driving a van full of kids to the beach five days a week and making sure they don't drown. I don't even have to lead the camp, which works out well for me because I don't know how to surf. So as I see it, the City of Ojai, in its infinite wisdom, wants to pay me to go to the beach this summer. And I, for one, fully support and applaud their decision.

After that, it's back up to Poly (assuming they accept me again) for a year while I get my high-school-physics-teaching credential. I'll be living with my youngest brother and social clone, my former nextdoor neighbor from Ojai, and a friend of theirs almost directly across the street from my old place — and for lower rent! Good times will be had by all.

Who wants a dollar?

2005-05-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

We've been talking game theory in my quantum mechanics class since roughly mid-March. Now don't get me wrong, game theory is cute and a valid topic for discussion — but not in a graduate qm class. I figured we might get our asses kicked calculating Clebsch-Gordon coefficients, but there was no mention of Clebsch nor Gordon, and certainly not any coefficients. Heck, we didn't even talk about Bessel functions, spherical harmonics, or Legendre polynomials! Instead, we've been bumbling through game theory for a month and a half.

That's right, game theory.

So our final, after many permutations, was to write a paper about a paper published in PRL years ago: a paper "consider[ing] game theory from the perspective of quantum algorithms." So I wrote my review, changing the game ever so slightly, as instructed. And if you can tell me what it physically has to do with quantum mechanics (meaning no bullshit answers about probability or quantum algorithms), email me. The first person to do so gets a dollar.

Seriously.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are turning over in their respective graves

2005-05-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

the eric the: so you're flying home tomorrow?
Eatenpee: is ryan seacrest gay?
the eric the: yes?
Eatenpee: can you think of a reason I would want to stay in Ithaca rather than see Soph?
the eric the: how about the freaks in the commons blasting zep?
Eatenpee: wouldn't that be a pretty good non-reason for staying here?
the eric the: don't you like zep?
Eatenpee: isn't a zep cover band not really zep?
the eric the: could you tell the difference?
Eatenpee: isn't john bonham dead?
the eric the: didn't they do a couple recordings before he died?
Eatenpee: weren't we talking about a live performance though?
the eric the: when did you say it was a live performance?
Eatenpee: wasn't it when I said they were on the commons waking me up?
the eric the: didn't you just say they were blaring d'yer ma'ker?
Eatenpee: wasn't it clear that I meant they were blaring it from instruments?
the eric the: doesn't blaring imply a recording?
Eatenpee: can I retract the implication that I used the word blaring?
the eric the: wouldn't it have been more clear to say "playing zeppelin really loud"?
Eatenpee: isn't that what I said?
the eric the: why don't you check the log?
Eatenpee: don't you remember that I don't have deadaim in lab?
the eric the: why don't you have deadaim in lab?
Eatenpee: why don't you check the log?
the eric the: did i not give you a link to oldversions.com?
Eatenpee: did I not not have time to fuck with it?
the eric the: aren't you there all the time?
Eatenpee: aren't I supposed to be doing science with all that time?
the eric the: all that time?
Eatenpee: Eatenpee: did I not not have the patience to fuck with it?
the eric the: is it really that taxing?
Eatenpee: how would I know when I haven't done it?
the eric the: why don't you try it then?
Eatenpee: what makes you think I have the patience now?
the eric the: are you really that busy?
Eatenpee: didn't we figure out that being busy is not the issue?
the eric the: do you really have that little patience?
Eatenpee: are you really that surprised?
the eric the: does it even require patience?
Eatenpee: Eatenpee: how would I know when I haven't done it?
the eric the: isn't repetition against the rules?
Eatenpee: how would I know when I haven't done it?
the eric the: didn't you see the play just a couple weeks ago?
Eatenpee: didn't I tell you it sucked and I couldn't figure out what the crap was going on?
the eric the: could it have been that bad?
Eatenpee: are you saying you don't believe me?
the eric the: did you honestly not understand the play?
Eatenpee: would you know what I meant by saying that I understood most of it despite the efforts of the cast?
the eric the: and yet you couldn't follow the rules of the question game?
Eatenpee: isn't that obvious at this point?
the eric the: you know dude made it into a movie, don't you?
Eatenpee: who do you mean by dude?
the eric the: what's the name of the dude that wrote it?
Eatenpee: you're telling me the playwright made a movie?
the eric the: wouldn't the author be the most qualified to turn his play into a film?
Eatenpee: wouldn't that make him a director though?
the eric the: you don't think he ever directed the play?
Eatenpee: did I say that?
the eric the: wouldn't it make sense though?
Eatenpee: wouldn't it be different from film?
the eric the: aren't they similar media?
Eatenpee: you mean besides not having a camera?
the eric the: would performing for an audience versus a camera be all that different?
Eatenpee: weren't we talking about the dude here... I mean, isn't the director's job much different depending on whether you have a camera or not?
the eric the: more angles, sure, but wouldn't that simply allow him more freedom?
Eatenpee: does it matter, since I haven't seen the movie anyway?
the eric the: look, do you want to learn the rules or not?
Eatenpee: actually I need to move some bowels
Eatenpee: I'll be back
the eric the: and i win
Eatenpee: it's a pyhrric victory
Eatenpee: pyrrhic
the eric the: say what you will about modern socialism -- at least that's an ethos
Eatenpee: anyway it's an undervoweled victory
the eric the: be that as it may, mark it eight dude
Eatenpee is away at 4:27:31 PM.

And I'm done.

2005-05-03T14:07:00.001-07:00

Listen up, boys and girls.

My senior project has been completed and submitted. There were many doubters out there who didn't believe I'd ever finish (you know who you are) and to them I say for shame. Of course I'd finish; I was merely taking my sweet time. Now there's no need to notify Stockholm; it's not even worthy of Ig Nobel mention.

And now, through a special licensing act (an upload, really) with the author, you can read it today — before it's microfiched! Download your copy NOW while supplies last!

Modeling Neutron Stars

And just to pique your curiosity, I'll included some excerpts from the text. Enjoy!

Barely forty years ago, neutron stars were thought to exist purely in speculation. Today, more than a thousand specimens have been catalogued and studied. Existing as endpoint states of normal stellar evolution, they represent fundamental constituents of the physical universe.

¹ For an entertaining introduction to the inner workings of our own star, the Sun, listen to Why Does The Sun Shine? by They Might Be Giants.

In Section 1.1, we found that the large surface potentials of all compact objects implies that general relativity plays an important role in determining their structure. So far, all our equations have been limited to the classical regime. To adopt a more general-relativistically friendly set of equations, we shall employ the “Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation of hydrostatic equilibrium” (4.2). Our new set of coupled equations are as follows.
[equations omitted]
We notice that our classical equations from Chapter 3 are revealed if we take P << ρc2 and (G/c²) m << r.

I don't know about you, but consider my interest piqued.

Tonight's get-rich-quick scheme

2005-04-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

I decided to "treat" myself to a pizza tonight. Seeing as I forgot the combination to the lock on the laundry room at my apartment complex, I spent an hour or so in a public laundromat halfway between my apartment and the Michigan state line and I didn't feel like going home and making dinner.

A dude walked into East of Chicago Pizza right in front of me, leaving his car running (a big no-no for real pizza delivery guys). Anyway, he put his money on the counter and the girl gave him his change -- and it was a big stack of bills.

He peeled off the top six or seven bills and said he'd rather just have five twenties. So she gave him one more twenty and he went on his way, mumbling something about a customer that only had a hundred.

Then it was my turn. The girl asked if she could help me. I placed both hand politely on the counter, looked her square in the face, and told her I would also like five twenties.

She didn't go for it.

Viewers like you

2005-04-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

While shooting it up as a terrorist in cstrike last night, it was brought to my attention that Wired recently ran an article on Bill Nye (My tag is a picture of Bill holding a model space shuttle).

When Wired caught up with [Bill], the topics foremost in his mind were bugs, PB&J, and sex.

I did a minimal amount of googling and found out that not only did Wired indeed run an article on Bill recently, but he's got a new show: The Eyes of Nye. It's supposed to be a more grown up version of his science show for kids, with thirteen episodes covering such topics as pseudoscience, addiction, over population, and the evolution of sex.

Looks like it started showing on Ericmas. One heck of a birthday present, if you ask me. But it's not airing anyway near here. The only place I saw on the list near anybody I know is Seattle. All I can say is Chris better tape me an episode. Maybe it's about time I called up my local PBS affiliate and kindly request they air the show.

We can make him tall...

2005-04-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

... or we can make not so tall!

I just made this guy with the snow on my back porch. I figured it was high time I built me a snowman, especially considering my now limited time in the Midwest. Ha! Who would've thought I'd be building a snowman on my porch in the last week of April? Not me.

Now, what to name him?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2005-04-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

So seriously, it's snowing outside. I was prepared for the ol' April showers bringing May flowers, but this just ridiculous. When the chick in the physics office said it was supposed to snow this week, I refused to believe her. When I heard the rumor from a few other people, I started to give in. But still, I only expected a light dusting.

These were taken from my back porch -- lookin' out my back door, if you will. I think I'll go make a snowman.

the eric the on BS

2005-04-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

If Chris can start an alternate blog, so can I. There seem to be some big pluses and minuses in switching over to Blogger's whathaveyou. On the minus side, their "dashboard" hooha and publishing system don't seem as natural as LJ's updating system. I also don't particularly care for the standard forms of their templates. However, on the plus side, the templates are relatively customizable. And through a hook up with Hello, they allow you to include pictures in your entries (and host the files for free). I wonder if they rename the pictures every once in a while so people can't link to the pictures (like the service formerly known as Ofoto does). The picture of Bill down below intends to find out.

So far, all I've done is backdate all my entries from here and transfer them over -- just so I could see how the stuff looks in the different format. I'ma play around with their templates and stuff and see if I can work out something that I like even more than my present format.

If what's during league play?

2005-04-13T15:11:00.001-07:00

I was checking out the game descriptions on the game menu at homestarrunner.com and I was reminded of an aim conversation I had with Ethan a few years ago. It was decided that it would be cool to abuse the power of Babel Fish to render oneself incomprehensible. It's like a game of telephone gone horribly wrong.

I decided to give it a whirl using one of my favorite movie lines...

"Life does not start and stop at your convenience, you miserable piece of shit."
-Walter Sobchak

"And starts at your ease at, you miserable piece of shit does not keep living."

English-Dutch-English

"The life stops and your convenience, the one piece the human waste miserable in you Ji Anh it does not start."

English-Korean-English

"The life holds on not and begins at your suitability, you unfortunate no piece of shit."

English-French-German-English

"The life stamatje'taj and does not begin in your advantage, you leaves poor from merda."

English-Italian-French-Greek-English

Bebida más me hearties, yo ho!

2005-04-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

I had a cool dream last night that I thought I'd try my best to transcribe, for lack of anything better to do right now.

In the beginning, I remember I was driving up through the hills north of Santa Barbara, maybe heading up the 101 near Gaviota. There was a long line of cars heading south and I remember being glad I wasn't headed that way. As I got near the top of the hill, no longer recognizable as the 101 near Gaviota (maybe I mixed in the pass over the 154) An SUV headed south pulled into the northbound lane and the jackass just sat there, stopped. Naturally, I was annoyed as I wanted to get over the pass for some reason.

I honked a couple times. I was debating mean names to call him under my breath when I realized he'd pulled out into my lane for a reason. There was a big fire on the other side of the hill and they were just starting to set up a roadblock. No passing that way. Since I'd pulled up real close to him to give the full effect of my honking, I had to swing around behind his SUV to turn around. There was a lot of smoke -- the fire must've been really close.

There was no long line of cars as I headed back down the hill. In fact, it wasn't long before I realized even I wasn't in a car but strolling down the hill. And as I walked, I noticed there seemed to be ice on the side of the road than usual that close to Santa Barbara. There were some nice patches of snow too. With all that water and ice on the ground, I decided that most of the smoke I'd seen at the top of the hill had to have been steam. It made perfect sense. When I got to the bottom of the hill was was gazing out of the beautiful blue of the Pacific Ocean, I found that the Channel Islands were decidedly closer to the main land than they ought to have been. Looking through the zoom lens of the camera that was now hanging around my neck, I say something big and white launch off one of the islands and snatch a gull out of the air before diving into the water below. Tracing it's arc back to land, I saw another big white mass moving around on the island, which was also far too white. Squinting without looking through the camera, I agreed with the other people now standing on the shore that it had been a polar bear that had jumped twenty feet into the air to catch the gull and that the island wasn't one of the Channel Islands after all, but a glacier. I think we were about due for a new ice age and of course the onset of the next ice age should come that quickly. Don't believe all that global warming hype.

I was watching through the camera again when somebody pointed out the pirate ship sailing into view. Man, the zoom on that camera was amazing! I zoomed right in on the captain's face. Surprisingly, he looked a lot like Johnny Depp did in Pirates of the Caribbean, only he looked a lot meaner and he had some seriously cool pirate tattoos. It wasn't long before I lost the camera and found myself one of the pirates on the ship. Talk about cool: a pirate's life for me.

Like any good pirate story, we were being pursued by other pirates and we got shipwrecked. We landed near some colonists out working their fields. I was sure it was some foreign island. The farmers were all wearing blue so the had to be french (if they'd been wearing red, the would've been british). Since I seemed to be the only one to have noticed the farmers, I tried to talk to them and ask for some help, but they were french. Clearly, rural french people don't speak english, so I tried the only foreign tongue I have any grasp of: spanish. Amazingly, one of them did speak spanish and he could understand perfectly the gringo high school spanish was butchering at him. One of the other pirates came along and took over talking to the guy, since he spoke better spanish than I did. It would've been logical to speak french at them, but we were pirates. We're don't speak that crazy moon language (plus, I don't know enough french to say anything more useful than je m'appelle fromage).

The french farmers put us up in a small barn. We stood around in the barn talking pirate talk for a while when the girl pirates (wenches, if you will) that had been following us jumped in and (sadly) started beating the hell out of us. At some point in the dire struggle, I found myself in downtown Ventura trying to find Fast Dave's apartment. I was having a really tough time finding the place, especially since he lives in Boston. Since I didn't know exactly where I was, but I knew I could find his place from the train stop, I decided to take the T. Sitting down on the train, I found myself in the middle of a public service announcement explaining that all the peanut butter on the shelves in grocery stores is really seven years old. Seems the peanut butter manufacturers think it's a pretty funny joke to sell seven year old peanut butter.

I remember thinking that's why I buy the natural kind that you have to stir. I also remember thinking I'd been sleeping for a long time and that I was going to be late to teaching the achievers. Rolling over and looking at the clock, I saw that it was an hour later than when I'd set the alarm for the last night. Somehow I'd turned off my alarm in my sleep (I bet it was while I was a scurvy pirate, those guys are always up to no good). It was later than I had hoped to get up but earlier than I probably would've gotten up had I been hitting snooze. Grudgingly, I decided to leave my dreams of being a pirate behind and got ready to go teach the achievers about weather.

Man, even though we were getting our butts kicked by girls, it was cool being a pirate.

Picture Simplicity

2005-04-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

So I just found this Picasa 2 program (powered by Google). It's pretty slick. The timeline button it particularly cool to play with. Anyway, there seems to be a way to upload pictures to your blog through it if you're using Google's Blogger service. Free webspace for a picture or two might be worth looking into, but it means I'd have to abandon Live Journal. I'd miss my Friends button, but it just might be cool enough to warrant that.

Also, I came across the Alt-Tab replacement Power Toy through lifehacker.com. Not terribly necessary, but cute nonetheless.

The commemorations continue...

2005-04-08T23:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I just beat the game, too. I'll let you sit back in awe of how awesome I really am. Go on: revel in my awesome awesomitude.

Breaking news

2005-04-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

This just in from Fast Dave himself: This is ridiculous.

Whether he's referring to my previous post, my "blog", or blogging in general, we may never know.

Commemorative update

2005-04-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

This entry commemorates the mad skills of Fast Dave! To date, he's the only one I know who's beaten the Stinkoman game. What a man.

Well, you know, sometimes you eat the bear...

2005-03-30T07:13:00.000-08:00

For two of the past three weeks, I've been in California -- either on Spring Break or at the APS March Meeting. I started getting pretty good and sick the Tuesday of Spring Break and just this afternoon finished off my cold medicine. I'm a little disappointed because one of the meds had a "may cause dizziness" warning sticker on the bottle. Usually I manage to be affected by weird little things like that (I'm the one-out-of-many people whose eyes burn from the drops at the eye doctor), but it took a good two beers to feel even slightly dizzy while medicated. Now I did not imply, nor should you infer, that I was trying to get dizzy; this is just what I noticed in my experimenting.

The March Meeting was definitely an eye opening experience. It's not often one gets to see grown men and women (admittedly, mostly men) walking the streets of downtown LA wearing nametags and carrying phonebook-sized collections of abstracts for physics talks. As if the bow ties and old suits weren't nerd giveaways enough. We certainly have some stereotypes for a reason. Also, it seems that physicists, grad students in particular, are the vultures of academia. I attended a pair of wine and cheese receptions featuring free food and drink. In both instances, the supply of wine lasted barely more than fifteen minutes and the cheese supply was exhausted in five minutes more. These guys were taking everything off the tables -- naturally the cheese and crackers, but also the decorative melons and uncut pineapples. Not to mention that people were taking pictures of the chesse displays. Amazing.

Well, as you can surely guess, all this traveling back and forth across the country has royally screwed up my internal clock. I don't know when to go to bed or even eat anymore. As the good Dude said, "fortunately I've been adhering to a pretty strict, uh, drug regimen to keep my mind, you know, limber." I think it's some kind of eastern thing.

I may have missed the prompt

2005-03-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

(2) You have been teaching somewhere in grades 4-12. What application do you see these ideas (e.g., "inquiry-based" instruction) have to college teaching? How, if at all, would you teach a college math/science course differently now after your PRISM experience than you would have (or perhaps did do) before being in PRISM? (Please be specific and include examples.)

Taking an inquiry-based approach to a course at the college level would be a difficult endeavor -- at least in the realm of physics, where I have the majority of my experience. And yet, for those wishing to continue their education past the undergraduate (or even graduate) level, one cannot expect to learn everything one needs from reading textbooks.

For many, the current method of learning to solve problems from a textbook is more than sufficient to gain an understanding of physical situations and how to work with them. They are of the mind that this is the way science education has been for years on end and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But the fact that something works doesn’t imply that it can’t be improved. Therefore, if the idea is to impart upon the student an idea of what science is and how the scientific process works, the earlier the student is exposed to the inquiry-based method of thinking and problem solving the better.

I took the role of a teacher’s assistant in a somewhat inquiry-based physics courses as an upper-level undergraduate. In these classes, I found that the students would resist the inquiry process as much as they could. For so long in their education they had been told what they needed to know by their professors and learned to regurgitate such knowledge for their tests. To suddenly immerse them in a setting where they were responsible for their own learning was not taken as a friendly gesture. Considering this, it would be a grave mistake to think we could simply begin teaching college-level courses using an inquiry-based approach. So to be effective as science educators, we may need a combination of our present, “traditional” method of teaching and this student-driven, inquiry-based approach.

It is my firm belief that, while useful and wholly invaluable, the deepest understanding a student of science can have cannot be obtained working problems at the end of the chapter in a textbook but rather by physically exploring and actually doing the science for themselves. One could ask, from which text did Newton learn calculus? Indeed, in order to deepen our understanding we must go beyond what the textbook has to offer. As the student progresses through their education in science, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be spending less time in a lecture-based setting and more time exploring and discovering the real science.

With that in mind, I propose that it isn’t a question of how science should be taught, but as a question of where we should be putting the emphasis. Consider the average college student taking barely more than what is required to get by in science. For them, the scientific process has two distinct regimes. In one case, an old man babbles on in the front of a large hall while scrawling letters and symbols across the board and gesticulating wildly. In the other, lab coats are donned, stuff whizzes around, and there may be an occasional explosion or other unexpected event. The end result of both is that the student sees science as more or less incomprehensible and there is little connection between what goes on in lab and what goes on in lecture.

Therein lies the problem. Given more time, labs should be taught not as supplementary material, but as proof of all the symbols that were scrawled down without any real understanding. For the nonscientist and scientist alike, labs should be at least just as important as lectures, with both sections feeding off of and driving each other. Ideally, there would exist a kind of seamless transition between what is being written on the board and what it actually means for those of us in real life.

Given the current structure of our education system, the only realistic way of doing this would be to have countless demonstrations on hand to show what is happening to the funny symbols on the board. Time constraints would rarely permit this and the amount of foresight and preparation on the teacher’s part to be ready for any possible question a student could ask would be nigh inhuman. For this reason, more emphasis must be placed on activities and labs than is given by our current system. Also, to aid in understanding, there must be a more direct line between what happens in labs and what happens in lectures. Our current system may be effective for producing the scientists it does, but it would be foolish to think that we, as scientists, can’t do better.

Isn't it ironic...

2005-03-04T04:05:00.000-08:00

This past week, I had a meeting with my graduate coordinator and the director of my fellowship. I decided we needed a meeting so I could explain to them why I'm considering not returning next year. While for the most part I think my involvement with PRISM has been a great experience, initial data indicates an expectation value for the courses here somewhere in the range of "subpar." Naturally, I thought that since this concerned their work, they would be interested to know it.

Oh, how wrong I was! As it turns out, they are under the impression that I don't have the desire to toil for hours for the sake of science. Consequently, they questioned my ability to survive as a grad student. I politely tried to explain the difference between doing science and cranking out pages upon pages of math for minimal physical insight. At this point I was informed that it could be I've misjudged the process of physics education. Evidently, this is the way physics has been taught for many years and it sure has been working fine.

I didn't bring up the issue of declining enrollment in physics across the nation, but it does bring up an interesting point. If "working fine" means "fewer people going into science," I guess they couldn't be closer to the truth. Also, the charge of the PRISM program is to bring about a change in the way science is taught for the better. Seems odd to me now that my fellowship director could sit there quietly while my graduate coordinator blasphemed as he did.

Which brings us to my favorite part yet. Part of my contract requires me to fill out somewhat-weekly journal posts -- that is, when our director remembers to give us prompts. Check out the second part of this week's prompt.

(2) You have been teaching somewhere in grades 4-12. What application do you see these ideas (e.g., "inquiry-based" instruction) have to college teaching? How, if at all, would you teach a college math/science course differently now after your PRISM experience than you would have (or perhaps did do) before being in PRISM? (Please be specific and include examples.)

Clearly, the powers that be appreciate heavy doses of irony. I just hope they still appreciate them when they read my response.

My double vision gets the best of me

2005-02-26T16:09:00.000-08:00

The two or three of you that read this already know about my penchant for multiple-monitor displays. Well, Liam* showed me this a while back and I recently found it again through lifehacker.com (which I in turn found through Chris).

Now more than ever, I want a third monitor. This time I want a 15.1" LCD monitor and an overhead projector to go with it.

Dude wrote an update to his article detailing which monitors he'd tried and which worked well. Undoubtedly, this can be done for cheaper than $300.

*UPDATE: Liam denies bringing it to my attention. Let's just pretend I found it and consider me a trivial-yet-cool-stuff-online-finding guru, unless someone knows they showed it to me.

UPDATE (NUMERO THE SECOND): While my two CRTs are highly functional, I've been put to shame.

Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams

2005-02-20T22:16:00.000-08:00

Yet another weekend passed here in Toledo. I find that I all but count the days between my visits home. Lately, I've been giving some serious thought to calling it quits for my studies at BGSU and testing out a new career path. I've been thinking particularly about heading down the road that more or less made me apply here in the first place. It seems the only time during the week that I really look forward to is the time I spend teaching the achievers, so I'm thinking I may want to look into a teaching credential.

It's kinda funny that I look forward to teaching more than I do to my own classes. But on the other hand, my experiences here as a student have been less than stellar. Seriously though, when a prof can't even explain the physical reasoning behind why a wave function must be continuous across a potential boundary, you've got to start wondering about the level of teaching going on here. In other cases, I've seen profs answer their cell phones during lecture (granted, the prof in question told the caller he was teaching and he'd call back later, but still...) and I've heard profs say during lecture that they finally understand the topic in question and didn't fully understand it when they taught it the previous year. Sure, I may be coasting through their program, but it almost seems to me that somebody else might be coasting in their duties as well.

What makes me uneasy about quitting is the fact that if I do call it quits now, chances are pretty good that I won't bother trying to go back later and finish what I've started at a more capable institution. And a master's degree would be nice to have around to pad the ol' curriculum vitae. But is it really worth going through the motions to get a piece of paper just to look better on another piece of paper? I'm beginning to doubt it.

Man, the weather here is depressing.

Queda los de afuera leer mi mente

2005-02-13T00:41:00.000-08:00

I watched the original version of "Vanilla Sky" tonight. Now, I think Tom Cruise is something of a dork, but his version was pretty damn good. And everything I'd heard about the original claimed it was even better. Of course, the original is in spanish, having been filmed entirely in Madrid, so you have to put up with that great castileño-lisp from everybody. It just sounds silly. But once you get past that, it was quite an enjoyable film. I recommend seeing it. If you haven't seen "Vanilla Sky" then you should watch this one first, just so you don't have the english-based language bias. I'll give the Tom Cruise version one thing though: Cameron Diaz, man hands or no, was much hotter than Najwa Nimri. Penélope Cruz, while odd as a spanish mime, makes her appearance as Sophía in both. For those that want some philosophical insight, I'm no longer in the mood, but it does make you think some about how our perceptions alter our reality and are in turn altered by reality. There's probably some sort of quantum feedback governing the whole thing.

Also, I watched "The Grudge" again (in english, not japanese). Turns out the police dude did indeed die. But still, they never found his body, so the question in my previous post, while slightly altered, still stands. And after watching it on a screen bigger than my own, I was able to tell that that reddish blob the detectives found in the attic was that Yoko chick's jaw. Man, I'd gone as far as freeze framing it trying to figure out what the hell it was. Maybe I should look into a bigger tv. Or maybe I should just abre los ojos.

And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

2005-02-10T17:34:00.000-08:00

I watched The Grudge last night. There's nothing quite like a spooky movie to remind you that you live alone. Overall, it wasn't bad (not so much because of, but despite Buffy's starring role), but it did leave me with some questions and complaints.

At the risk of spoiling it for those who haven't seen the "film," what the heck happened to Dude's sister or the detective? I'm assuming the detective died because he wasn't in the morgue scene at the end, but seriously, that chick just disappeared? Even Dude and his wife were found in the attic.

But all that is secondary to the real problem with the movie. The real issue here is damped oscillatory motion. Dry wall is hardly a restoring force. That dude's feet should've stopped hitting the wall after their first, maybe second, time hitting the wall. He definitely shouldn't have slammed into the wall that many times. Seriously, I like simple harmonic motion as much as the next guy, but that was too much.

Speaking of too much: Lent is once again upon us, albeit mighty early this year. This time around, I'm going to make a concerted effort to not hate being in Ohio. To make it that much more difficult, I've decided to not drink on school nights. Let's see what happens next time there's a homework assignment in Quantum.

For the benefit of Mr. Kite... an update tonight

2005-02-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

After a fun-filled weekend of ctrike with a dash of E&M homework, the time has come for another update (falling by the wayside indeed, Steve). In lieu of some thoughtful (or thoughtless) account of my Ohio-based adventures for the past week or two, I present you with a little gem that was sent over by my good friend Ed and now is shamelessly ripped off from one Timothy McSweeny's site.

P H Y S I C A L T H E O R I E S
A S W O M E N .

BY SIMON DEDEO

- - - -

0. Newtonian gravity is your high-school girlfriend. As your first encounter with physics, she's amazing. You will never forget Newtonian gravity, even if you're not in touch very much anymore.

1. Electrodynamics is your college girlfriend. Pretty complex, you probably won't date long enough to really understand her.

2. Special relativity is the girl you meet at the dorm party while you're dating electrodynamics. You make out. It's not really cheating because it's not like you call her back. But you have a sneaking suspicion she knows electrodynamics and told her everything.

3. Quantum mechanics is the girl you meet at the poetry reading. Everyone thinks she's really interesting and people you don't know are obsessed about her. You go out. It turns out that she's pretty complicated and has some issues. Later, after you've broken up, you wonder if her aura of mystery is actually just confusion.

4. General relativity is your high-school girlfriend all grown up. Man, she is amazing. You sort of regret not keeping in touch. She hates quantum mechanics for obscure reasons.

5. Quantum field theory is from overseas, but she doesn't really have an accent. You fall deeply in love, but she treats you horribly. You are pretty sure she's fooling around with half of your friends, but you don't care. You know it will end badly.

6. Cosmology is the girl that doesn't really date, but has lots of hot friends. Some people date cosmology just to hang out with her friends.

7. Analytical classical mechanics is a bit older, and knows stuff you don't.

8. String theory is off in her own little world. She is either profound or insane. If you start dating, you never see your friends anymore. It's just string theory, 24/7.

Sergeant, you've got a lot of damn gall

2005-01-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

I am in constant awe of how people interact with each other.

There was a meeting of my fellow fellows this afternoon. We're no Fellowship of the Ring and we're most definitely not led by the likes of Gandalf nor Elrond. And yet, I'd like to think we might be able to treat each other with dignity and mutual respect for what we're trying to accomplish. Well, as a bigger-lipped man than myself once said, you can't always get what you want.

Now I'll readily admit to my failings with time management. It is a problem I have and it is something I can work on. And I do tend to get the important things done, albeit after deadlines more often than I'd like. But here's my point: if someone were to tell me point blank that my time management skills were crap, it could be construed as rude, but not real news. Now if someone with equally poor time management skills were to inform you of yourown lack of skills and then proceed to tell you to go out and buy a book about how to better yourself and report back when you was through reading it, I ask you, Dear Reader, would you have listened? How about if this was after person showed up forty minutes late to the forty-five minutes he'd set aside to talk to you and you left work a couple hours early to make it to the meeting?

What was that bit in the Bible about Planck having something in his eye?

So right, so we had this fellowship meeting. There were no elves and no One Ring, but toward the end of the meeting, the book subject was again broached. So I proceeded to the story (with full orchestration and five part harmony) about contacting my advisor in regards to my project. I went on to inform the group that my advisor had come up with some new ideas for me to toy with. "New shit has come to light," if you will.

Upon inquiry, it was established that I had yet to acquire the book in question. Try as I might to point out the futility of reading a book about how to prepare to work when there is clearly work to be done, I was repeatedly asked how long I thought it would take to order said book from amazon.com.

After possibly the fourth repetition, I decided to turn my back on reason and hazard a guess. I wagered it wouldn't take much more than a few clicks to place an order on amazon.com for the book. Whether or not I was right in my guess never actually came into question. It also has yet to be determined, but that's beside the point. Having made my guess (and I stand by it), I was informed that the book would be delivered and ready for my reading when I was finished with all my work.

Now does this seem silly to anyone else? I was told to get a self-help book because my poor time management skills have resulted in my having not yet completed my senior project. But after I finish working on my project, I am expected to turn around and read a book to help me construct a plan to finish my project. Now maybe I'm being stubborn in my desire to not read a self-help book, but I do believe this so-called adult was being awfully childish in not listening to what I had to say and simply repeating his question word for word.

After all was said and done and this so-called adult left the room, I was congratulated by a few of my fellow fellows for keeping my cool. And then we went out for beers.

In the end, I did learn something important from the whole ordeal. The Easy Street Cafe in downtown BG has Guiness on tap.

The hook brings you back

2005-01-22T20:15:00.000-08:00

In my efforts to further waste space-time on The Internet, I have added a LiveJournal to my now ever-expanding repertoire. Good times. A song lyric or two seems the best way to kick things off. So without further ado, for your journal-reading pleasure, I humbly submit Hook by Blues Traveler.

It doesn't matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel that I'll convey
Some inner truth of vast reflection
But I've said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes