tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34951472012-01-13T03:39:52.262-05:00...Prove Their Worth...<center>
"Problems worthy of attack <br>
prove their worth <br>
by hitting back." - <i><a href="http://hjem.get2net.dk/san/grooks.html">Piet Hein</a></i>
</center>
<P>
A kind of running diary and rambling pieces on my struggles with assorted books, classes, and other things, as they happen. You must be pretty bored to be reading this...</P>a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.comBlogger1401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1085272965987613392004-05-22T20:31:00.000-04:002004-05-22T20:42:45.986-04:00Oh, and another thing.My summer job officially rocks. I'm finally doing the kind of stuff that I've been reading about since I was ten years old.
I'm a typical, know-less-than-nothing undegrad, and yet through some spectacularly good luck, I'm actually working on a theoretical physics project. And I'm talking pen-and-paper work here, not being a code monkey. What's more, the specific project I'll be working on a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1085272270994203612004-05-22T20:18:00.000-04:002004-05-22T20:31:10.993-04:00Yeah!Well, the semester's officially over, and I actually did well! I got an A- in my experimental physics class, mostly because I couldn't use a ruler to measure the length of a stick (!) in front of the professor on the lab final.
It feels nice to be able to whine about getting an A- in one class (oh noes), 'cause it used to be I'd be sighing mournfully at C's and worse. But hopefully I've now a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1084664600992075382004-05-15T19:42:00.000-04:002004-05-15T19:43:20.993-04:00It's not easy being green.Whoa. This thing is gonna fuckin' photosynthesize from now on!
Or not.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1083511657016668502004-05-02T11:27:00.000-04:002004-05-02T11:30:46.093-04:00You know, it's funny. Objectively speaking, field theory really shouldn't be any harder than group theory, at least at the undergrad level. And yet while I can handle field theory stuff, I have a far easier time with group theoretic things. For instance, since we're now covering Galois theory, I've found the homeworks to be radically easier and more pleasurable - it's stuff about groups again,a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1082911525887737362004-04-25T12:45:00.000-04:002004-04-25T12:48:27.840-04:00Wow, it's been a long time. I've been busy. Hmm. I wonder if this thing still works.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1070742820723775992003-12-06T15:33:00.000-05:002003-12-06T15:34:48.606-05:00Ah, I finally figured out how to get japanese to show up on blogger. Hurray. Not that I know enough to write about anything save negotiating the proper price of pants and pens, but it's still neat.
パイがいります。a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1070742651854544422003-12-06T15:30:00.000-05:002003-12-06T15:31:33.340-05:00テストです・a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1069526326480774722003-11-22T13:38:00.001-05:002003-11-22T13:39:13.920-05:00�e�X�g�ł�?Ba. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1069526281649721932003-11-22T13:38:00.000-05:002003-11-22T13:38:29.090-05:00Well now. It appears that blogger is doing something amusing with multibyte characters, or something. Or perhaps I'm doing something wrong with encodings/charsets. !$^#^%$#%^&#,!!!!11one!a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1069524814420856732003-11-22T13:13:00.000-05:002003-11-22T13:32:55.950-05:00Oh, sweet. I've learned how to write in Japanese in Windows XP. It's really really cool, but highlights just how pathetic my �ɂق� skills are (�킽���͓�{�ꂪ�킩��܂���?B)?@... Also, turning on Japanese language input crashes Mozilla-based browsers very reliably. I don't know wtf is their problem. But all in all, being able to type in such bon mots as �킽���̓o�J�ł��� blows up the coolness barometer.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1067393836039618602003-10-28T21:17:00.000-05:002003-10-28T21:17:15.343-05:00Today's physics class was fun, in a roller coaster-of-death sort of way. The professor who teaches our class is out of town this week, and asked a postdoc of his to substitute for him. The professor is a fantastic teacher. This postdoc was ... well meaning, clearly personable, and will probably make a good teacher eventually.
The trouble started in the first minute of class, where he a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1067049621791738152003-10-24T22:40:00.000-04:002003-10-24T22:42:30.013-04:00For some reason my math homework was somewhat hard this week. It was on automorphisms of groups, and conceptually it's pretty straightforward material, at least at the level at which we're working at. An automorphism is just a one-to-one and onto homomorphism of a group to itself, and everything falls out from that. Most of the homework problems were straightforward, except for two of them. a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1066867073563017712003-10-22T19:57:00.000-04:002003-10-22T19:59:22.650-04:00So I had a fun time in my Japanese class Monday morning. Every day, we're supposed to memorize several so-called 'core conversations', and act them out in front of the class. Each conversation focuses on some aspect of the grammar/vocabulary we're supposed to be learning, and it seems to be a nice learning tool. Anyway, as the semester has progressed, the conversations to be memorized have a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1066703849257869862003-10-20T22:37:00.000-04:002003-10-20T22:39:35.380-04:00A snippet from Tennyson's Ulysses:
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1066703647387472592003-10-20T22:34:00.000-04:002003-10-20T22:34:07.180-04:00Oh yes. If I have the time and inclination, I really should write a review of Dan Simmons' latest novel, _Ilium_. For now, all I'll say is that it's an absolutely mindblowing piece of work, will win all kinds of awards, and has made me want to reread the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as give Shakespeare, particularly _The Tempest_ and the sonnets a try. More, I now need to carefully read a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1066703058799194602003-10-20T22:24:00.000-04:002003-10-20T22:26:56.110-04:00Ooh. Blogger's updated their interface. Shiny. And sorta blue. Hmm.
I pulled a stupid in my math homework this week, but it's already turned in. The assignment was to show that the group of non-zero complex numbers under multiplication is isomorphic to the group of two-by-two real matrices of the form ((a,b),(-b,a)), or something like that. In any case, the 'obvious' approach is to write a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-1059929667966979072003-08-03T12:54:00.000-04:002003-08-03T12:54:27.960-04:00Ok, this is pretty cool. I'm currently testing out Firebird's new "Web Panels" feature, which basically lets me have a little picture-in-picture window into Blogger's posting page while surfing the web in general. It might even help me remember to post a bit more to the weblog. *cough*a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-953046872003-06-04T19:05:00.000-04:002003-06-04T19:06:02.000-04:00Oh, and I almost forgot. It's now official: I'm going to be resuming my formal, real education this fall, at a reasonably respectable institution. Just got the answer from them this morning. Yay!a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-953041332003-06-04T18:47:00.000-04:002003-06-04T19:02:46.000-04:00I'm going to avoid surfing the web using IE from now on. A half an hour ago, I hit up (using IE) the 'Miss Universe' website to gawk a bit at the contestants and to revel in being an unreconstructed male chauvnist pig, if only for a time. Lo and behold, my machine slows down to a crawl, a little 'software being installed' icon pops up in the tray for a few seconds, and despite my frantic a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-948761652003-05-25T20:32:00.000-04:002003-05-25T20:56:48.000-04:00I also need to visit the UK. My reasons range from the general touristy ones, to the availability of certain books there which are hard to find in the US, and to the fact that in Manchester, a rabbit got a parking ticket.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-948463892003-05-24T22:56:00.000-04:002003-05-24T23:12:49.000-04:00Oh my fuckin' God. I have got to visit Japan some day. I just found a link to the most hilariously bizarre thing ever while reading Charlie Stross's latest update (highly recommended web log, by the way [and read any of his stories you can get your hands on - he's a fantastic scifi writer]). It's well known that there exists anime for every taste. Well, it turns out that even those whose a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-948457262003-05-24T22:31:00.000-04:002003-05-24T22:36:05.000-04:00Lazy bums of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your laziness. Or something like that. It's been another few weeks since I've deigned to update this thing. I'm lazy.
Nothing spectacular occured in the interregnum. I finished out a semester at the world-famous locus of academic (and tobacco-smoking) excellence known as my local community college. (R3pr3s3nt!) My age counter got a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-937104052003-05-03T13:20:00.000-04:002003-05-03T13:20:20.710-04:00I know I haven't updated this thing in quite a while. That kind of sucks, I suppose, but the trouble is that I haven't been very motivated to write about anything lately. Go figure.
In any case, winter is now officially over, and I've got two pieces of unrelated trivia. First, Mr. Thumpy is alive! Or, to be somewhat more precise, there is still a wild rabbit prowling the neighbourhood at a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-916590792003-03-30T13:45:00.000-05:002003-03-30T13:45:08.530-05:00Holy crap. It's snowing again. This winter is ridiculously cool.
I'm currently concentrating on working my way through Schutz's Geometrical Methods of Mathematical Physics, along with a PDF book on vector spaces. They are both good stuff. Schutz's book is kinda hard, but doable, which is probably good. I wish I was reading it as part of a course, though, since every once in a while Schutz a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-907872472003-03-15T22:18:00.000-05:002003-03-15T22:23:49.000-05:00Damn. I'm sad to report that a rabbit who may have been known as "Mr. Thumpy" is no longer among the hopping, having been hit by a car. I saw what was left of him on the side of the road while jogging tonight. :( a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-905275462003-03-11T11:10:00.000-05:002003-03-11T11:11:00.000-05:00Hmm. underthumb's web log seems to have disappeared into 404-land. What happened?
a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-900300282003-03-02T22:51:00.000-05:002003-03-02T22:51:44.093-05:00Well, this has seen no updates in a long, long time. The sad thing is, I don't really have anything to write about, even now. Unfortunately, I don't see that changing in the near term.
I saw the "Daredevil" movie, and I'm afraid it more or less sucked. I didn't particularly care for the action sequences, mostly, which doomed it for me -- the only redeeming thing about comic-book movies can bea. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-891870192003-02-16T09:58:00.000-05:002003-02-16T09:58:29.310-05:00Snow! We've got snow! And lots of it! AND, it's the weekend - so I don't have to drive in it. It's basically perfect.
Hurray!a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-887826432003-02-08T22:51:00.000-05:002003-02-08T22:54:56.000-05:00Well, that was an interesting experience. It's taken me more or less all day, but I've gotten through a couple of problems in Stichartz's real analysis book. It didn't take me so long not because Strichartz's book is spectacularly difficult, which I suspect it isn't, for people who a) have some aptitude for math and b) are using it in a class, and can therefore seek outside aid if some part of a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-883836342003-02-01T12:43:00.000-05:002003-02-01T12:43:32.963-05:00Fuck. Columbia is gone - burned up on reentry. Somehow, this hit me more immediatly and perhaps harder than did 9/11. This brought tears to my eyes, and I had to sit down when I turned on the TV.
The disgraceful visionless money-fuckers in Congress will probably use this to cut NASA's funding even further.
There are still three people stuck on the ISS. How the fuck will they get down? a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-877619992003-01-20T22:14:00.000-05:002003-01-20T22:16:12.000-05:00Hurrah! I finished my linear algebra textbook tonight. All in all, it was a pretty good ride. The text I used was Lay's Linear Algebra. It's very clear, which is good, and has lots of examples, which is also good, and is nicely integrated, which is a plus. It doesn't have all that much theory in it, though, which is bad for my purposes, and was so easy to work through it felt too easy, whicha. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-875623802003-01-16T19:50:00.000-05:002003-01-16T19:54:35.000-05:00Oh dear. This thing has gone a long time between updates. My excuse, such as it is, is that I've been busy (and am still, and hopefully will be, for some time to come). There's a large amount of stuff I could write about, but laziness is likely to prevent me from writing much.
I've read two very good fiction books lately. One of them is called "Not the End of the World", by Chistopher a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-865247192002-12-25T16:48:00.000-05:002002-12-25T16:48:21.940-05:00So, I was messing with Gentoo Linux today, trying to install it and simulatenously tweak it so that prelinking works. I made some stupid mistakes, and for about an hour I'd thought I managed to totally fuck over both gentoo and windows, AND the MBR. 'Twas exciting. In the end, what I learned was a) don't try to install experimental versions of portage b) if you do, for the love of all that is a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-864185772002-12-22T22:22:00.000-05:002002-12-22T22:25:18.000-05:00Oh my god. I'm currently reading what might be the neatest thread ever: What if LoTR had been written by someone else? Milton and Seuss and Twain imitations, oh my. Go read it now!
I'm going to have to remember to skim the Straight Dope message boards every once in a while. a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-860451552002-12-15T17:26:00.000-05:002002-12-15T17:26:26.740-05:00I just came back from a Brazilian restaurant. It was very tasty. Particularly memorable was the caipirinha, probably because I've never had one before. It's really good.
I guess I haven't written anything about academics in the last month or too. I'm afraid this won't be changing with this update, because my fingers aren't obeying me as well as they ought to. Currently, I'm concentrating a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-859516892002-12-13T11:50:00.000-05:002002-12-13T11:50:02.470-05:00So. Some motherfucker somehow stole my credit number, and went on a bit of a shopping spree, from New Jersey, to Texas, to Minnesota.
Thankfully, I won't have to pay for any of it, except with inconvience and annoyance. I now won't have a credit card for a week or two. This may also result in me not getting to see the Two Towers movie on opening day, as I bougt said tickets on Fandango, and toa. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-855399412002-12-05T10:23:00.000-05:002002-12-05T10:25:55.000-05:00Oh baby. I love snow. I hate driving in it, mind you, but I love messing with it, and walking around in it, and falling in it, and shoveling it... 6-10 inches forecast for the Wash. D.C. area. Woohoo!
So I had a rather amusing time buying groceries yesterday. I got into a checkout line, having piled "Paul Newman's Virgin Lemonade"* and lots of other goodies into my shopping cart. In front a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-852846692002-11-30T01:29:00.000-05:002002-11-30T01:29:42.710-05:00This page is just kicking the last few weeks, ain't it? Yeah!
Just haven't felt particularly inspired to write anything lately.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-845988232002-11-15T18:49:00.000-05:002002-11-15T18:49:15.380-05:00It's here. Praise Jebus! And it's even better than I'd expected. It's so good, I'm not all that mad at the USPS and Amazon anymore.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-845387172002-11-14T14:29:00.000-05:002002-11-14T14:29:57.803-05:00The USPS really sucks. In this case, anyway. As does Amazon.com. It's the 14th. I preordered the Fellowship of the Ring DVD set weeks ago. It was 'released' on the 12th. It STILL isn't here. Bastards. And it costs the same at Best Buy as at Amazon. You can bet I ain't preordering shit from Amazon anymore.
In other news, this week has so far had its own locusts. Mind you, it's less a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-843473722002-11-11T00:19:00.000-05:002002-11-11T00:19:30.503-05:00Apologies for the long time between updates. Things lately have, in a comparatively minor way, sucked. Which lead to little inspiration for writing. That, and the last week or so was consumed by locusts, in the sense of having a shit-load of unplanned-for 'must do NOW!' stuff appear.
A new week is starting, though, and I hope it will be more pleasant and filled with some weblog updates.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-838000622002-10-30T20:46:00.000-05:002002-10-30T20:46:07.503-05:00Damn. I'm having a hell of a lot of trouble with the intro to Lie algebras stuff I'm reading. It's very frustrating. More later, probably.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-835734232002-10-26T20:58:00.000-04:002002-10-26T21:01:08.000-04:00This is very interesting, IMHO, but first, I
must warn that it is unconfirmed rumor-mongering, and that all
of my information is coming from a newsgroup thread and the links
therein. I recommend taking all this into account when evaluating
the reliability of this stuff.
Physics seems to have been hit with a reverse-Alan-Sokal-style hoax.
In 1996, as you may remember reading, Alan Sokal, a a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-831496142002-10-17T22:59:00.000-04:002002-10-17T23:06:47.000-04:00Did I ever mention that I am a bloody stupid retard*? Well, in case I haven't, I am. Tonight I uncovered more impressive data to support this characterization. You see, only a bloody stupid retard (with delusions of grandeur) would spend about three days filling page after page with matrix calculations, making errors, crossing things out, writing snarky notes to himself about what just a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-828090062002-10-10T17:09:00.000-04:002002-10-10T17:09:17.783-04:00Oh yeah. I promise I'll get back to fun-filled posts about math and physics now. No more "waah, I was in an accident" blabber.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-828083242002-10-10T16:53:00.000-04:002002-10-10T17:03:18.000-04:00Fuck yeah. I win. Allow me to explain.
As I wrote earlier, I got into a fender-bender car accident on Tuesday. The idiot I collided with pulled out from a shopping center onto a road without making sure there wasn't anyone on said road. Clearly, he is the liable party, morally and legally. Right?
Well, so I thought on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I got a rather nasty phonecall from my insurancea. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-827252592002-10-09T00:45:00.000-04:002002-10-09T00:45:30.000-04:00Wow. Now this is what I'm talkin' about. First, I've now made up my mind about what (techincal) book I'm buying next. It'll be Victor Bryant's Yet Another Introduction to Analysis. Every review of it I've been able to find is glowing to gushing, with the exceptions being from people who hate humor in their math texts (really!). What pushed me over the edge was this review by David Tall, a a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-827132332002-10-08T20:01:00.000-04:002002-10-08T20:02:05.000-04:00The upcoming elections better be good. And I sincerely hope my voter registration comes through on time. Else, I'm going to do something naughty, like take a long, cathartic leak on government property or something equally inappropriate.
I say this because said elections and registration for same have cost me a fair amount of nerves and time today, in the form of an auto accident. I was going a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-826031712002-10-06T15:57:00.000-04:002002-10-06T16:31:34.000-04:00Referrer logs are wonderful entertainment*, though best enjoyed in moderation. See, every once in a while, there's Comedy Gold in them. For instance: in the last few days, according to said referrer logs, people have visited this page in the search for "hemmorhoid pictures" and "techinques [sic] to measure the penis". Now, thanks to this, I discovered that Google thinks that I am the #2 a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-822533512002-09-28T21:19:00.000-04:002002-09-28T21:26:19.000-04:00Heh. a*b does not generally equal b*a. By 'generally', I refer to cases where a and b are members of a general group - that is, they ain't necessarily the sensible numbers everyone meets in school, but more perverse things. So, ab != ba. Having drilled into myself with some exercises, I read this: [Uj(g)f](v) = f(g-1v). This somewhat intimidating (to me) equation comes up in the definition a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-819395292002-09-22T01:11:00.000-04:002002-09-26T20:44:47.000-04:00So. It's been a while. Long story. But not one I'll be talking about this time.
I've seen Mr. Thumpy twice in the interregnum. He ran off swiftly both times - but that's normal. I've also learned a lot of new words. (No, 'interregnum' isn't one of them, I've had that one in my repertoire for a while, waiting for a chance to whip it out.) Unfortunately, I only recall one of them at the a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-814557782002-09-11T10:01:00.000-04:002002-09-11T10:01:41.863-04:00OMG. According to Einstein, left-handed people are travelling backward through time, man. Also, right-handed people are always going to misunderstand lefties, because we can't reach them. It all matches up, especially if you've Bob Marley crooning on your stereo! And it's all SO(3,1)'s fault, too, which means the CIA is involved. Trippy.
This post brought to you by an attempt to imagine a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-812573612002-09-06T19:49:00.000-04:002002-09-06T19:52:47.000-04:00Special sneak preview: later tonight, if I get around to it, and more importantly, if I actually get it, I shall post my attempt at 'proving' that GL(n, R) and U(n) and SL(whatnot) and their cousins are Lie groups. (This is like #4, part II in Baez and Munian.) I've been struggling with this for two days, and I'm still not done. The best attempt I've got so far uses a bit too much handwaving a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-810164762002-09-02T00:05:00.000-04:002002-09-02T00:30:53.000-04:00Tonight's jog was far less exciting adventure-wise than yesterday's: no Mr. Thumpy sightings, no rain, glasses, no close encounters of the third kind with parked Hondas. On the other hand, jogging-wise, tonight was great. It's about sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit*, ninety-percent humidity, partly-cloudy... Just about perfect. The air is cool, but not so cool that it's dry (which, when runninga. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-809810072002-09-01T00:26:00.000-04:002002-09-01T00:30:46.000-04:00There's good news, and there's bad news. The good news is, I saw Mr. Thumpy tonight. Or, to be more accurate, I think I saw Mr. Thumpy - what I actually saw was a greyish blur hopping rapidly across someone's lawn. It was thus probably a rabbit, and thus probably Mr. Thumpy. You see, I wasn't wearing my glasses, because it's raining, and there are few things more annoying than rainy glasses.
a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-808845542002-08-29T16:11:00.000-04:002002-08-29T16:26:53.000-04:00Ah, the Hodge star operator. What did I ever do without it? Not much! I promised to write about it a long, long time ago, when I was beating my head against a wall trying to grasp it, but haven't gotten around to it until now. Mea culpa.
So what is it? Well, it took me quite a few days to figure it out, and I'm going to try to give a brief overview of my picture of it at this point. Firsta. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-808574012002-08-29T00:59:00.000-04:002002-08-29T01:02:43.000-04:00I shall update this tomorrow with a storied tale of courage under fire, blood, bridges, tears, sweat, sex (neither goats nor sheep will be involved, to the relief of some of my readers and perhaps to the consternation of others), bombs, hair-pulling, Shakespearean flights of poetry, and yet more sex to end the final act on a high note. There will also be exterior derivatives, integrals, and 'a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-805817122002-08-22T15:57:00.000-04:002002-08-22T15:58:41.000-04:00I spent about six hours straight on one problem, involving a line integral, of all things. Line integrals tend to be relatively easy to do, right? I thought so too. Still do. Nonetheless, I just couldn't get this thing to come out right. And I didn't even need it to get 'the answer', because I saw what it should be using vigorous squinting! But I just couldn't get it come out right.
My a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-805362862002-08-21T16:21:00.000-04:002002-08-21T16:24:38.000-04:00Holy donkey poo. I've just finished working out what an integral means (a particular integral, not 'integral' in general). Damn, this thing was hairy. Hmm. I guess a brief bit of catch-up again is advisable. To my surprise, I've actually Accomplished A Goal, and I now know how to write down Maxwell's equations on a (sort of) arbitrary semi-Riemannian oriented manifold. It's really very a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-803473012002-08-17T00:36:00.000-04:002002-08-17T13:49:45.000-04:00Humor time!* First, you owe it to youself to carefully read this opinion piece from America's Finest News Source, The Onion**. Next, you should take a very careful look at this scan of an interestingly tasteful advertisment for a personal lubricant (it's from France, which explains everything). Also, you may be amused to know that when I took a gander at my referrer logs the other day, I a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-801630212002-08-12T21:13:00.000-04:002002-08-12T21:23:07.000-04:00Well, I've been silent a little while, for a lot of assorted reasons. Which I'm not going to go into. Anyways, I just figured I'd write down for posterity a few of the things I've got kicking around on my hard drive at the moment, in various stages of (dis)composition.
There's a paper I've been trying to read which goes into more detail about what "1+2=3" means than I thought existed. It's a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-798117022002-08-04T14:12:00.000-04:002002-08-04T14:35:57.000-04:00The archives are driving me nuts. Blogger's system for them is insane. You can see the resulting clusterfuck in my manual attempt to get archives listed over on the right. Why May 2002 can't be listed as one damn month on one damn page, and can only apparently be listed in three chunks, I don't know.
If I had money, I'd sign up for a web host that allows perl, and go to, say, MovingType. Buta. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-798101842002-08-04T13:15:00.000-04:002002-08-04T17:29:45.000-04:00In my browsing, I came across this thread. Unfortunately, anyone who buys the claims made on the pages linked to in the first post is being taken for a ride. This is a bogus patent (so far as I can tell). For what it's worth, you may be distressed to know that the USPTO often issues idiotic patents, including for perpetual motion machines (if you don't literally call it a perpetual energy a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-797344762002-08-02T10:30:00.000-04:002002-08-02T10:30:28.186-04:00Yay. Blogspot works again.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-796633902002-07-31T20:03:00.000-04:002002-08-02T10:30:50.000-04:00This is the posting that's been sitting on my hard drive that I'd referred to last time, with a bit of a trim for sanity. Without much further ado...
Most people meet math in school. They are taught to add, to subtract, to multiply, to divide. They are forced to memorize tables of facts. No one denies this is useful - I suspect even the kids know it. But kids aren't stupid, and they know a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-795777322002-07-29T23:20:00.000-04:002002-07-29T23:22:44.000-04:00A few days ago I read an interesting piece on wynk's site (::waves to wynk::) about math and math education and so on, and was inspired to write down some of my own thoughts on the subject. I got a few paragraphs in, but ran out of steam, and then got distracted, and now the stuff I half-wrote is sitting on my hard drive, staring at me, first forlornly, then seductively, then accusingly, and a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-795740022002-07-29T21:50:00.000-04:002002-07-29T22:40:42.000-04:00It's been too bloody humid outside (even at night!) to go jogging the last few days. So no Mr. Thumpy sightings to report. Damn.
So, here's the promised math update. I've finished the chapter on vector fields (more or less -- I'll need to go back and do some more exercises to get reasonably limber). So now I'm on the chapter about differential forms. It's really very neat stuff. They're a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-795572942002-07-29T14:06:00.000-04:002002-07-29T14:06:22.546-04:00I've either found a substantial typo in Baez and Munian, or I've gone completely loony, or cross-eyed, or all of the above. News at 11!
Or, err, actually, after I get back from the library (stupid due dates...).a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-795131142002-07-28T12:34:00.000-04:002002-07-28T12:46:00.000-04:00I got my daily allowance of humor for the day this morning! I read a thread in a political discussion group I once frequented, which was started by the moderators for admonishing people to behave themselves and not engage in ad hominem attacks - especially tit-for-tat ones. When a particularly egregious (vicious, really) example of such an attack was presented in that very thread, can you a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-795019532002-07-28T02:13:00.000-04:002002-07-28T02:20:53.000-04:00I saw Austin Powers: Goldmember today. My god, what a piece of foul, unfunny, boring tripe. Mind you, I very much enjoyed the first two installments. But all this third one is is poor repeats of the exact same jokes that were in the first two flicks. Oh, and it has appearances by celebrities. Wow. Like I give a flying wank about Travolta or Britney Spears or any of the other flaming retardsa. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-794201452002-07-25T23:02:00.000-04:002002-07-25T23:02:32.120-04:00Whew. No more sidebar revisions for today. Ideally, the book list font should be smaller, but I don't feel like doing the proper CSSing for it today.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-794184592002-07-25T22:14:00.000-04:002002-07-25T22:19:21.000-04:00So, I'm adding another link to the right side of the page. The link is to the journal of Charles Stross. I encountered Mr. Stross in several of Gardner Dozois's Best of the Year in SF stories collection, and greatly enjoyed all of his stories that I've had the luck to read. Now, I have found his journal. It kicks much arse. Look, for instance, at just some of the recent material: a long and a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-794180352002-07-25T22:00:00.000-04:002002-07-25T22:02:36.000-04:00I'm jumping ahead, because I'm too lazy to recount the explanation of why the definition of vector fields given last time actually deserves the name. Also, I apologize in advance for the incoherence of this post. That's the problem with writing about things I know damn well I don't understand -- I end up chasing my tail as if I was a dog and someone tied a piece of crispy bacon to it. Mmm....a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-792828312002-07-22T22:36:00.000-04:002002-07-22T22:36:47.000-04:00Praised be the Glorious One. I saw Mr. Thumpy today. During the day! He was running along somone's lawn, complete with big ears (I'll bet he's not very fuel-efficient, what with those aerodynamics), tail, and hopping. I hope he's smart enough not to try crossing any roads...a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-791978612002-07-20T17:20:00.000-04:002002-07-20T17:36:04.000-04:00Continued from previous entry... Okay. I'm ready to continue talking about something I can barely grasp with my metaphorically soapy fingers. The next notion I'm going to need is that of a 'directional derivative'. First, a derivative is generally a fancy way of talking about 'how stuff changes'. Most people meet derivatives in the context of talking about what a function f(x) is doing - a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-791962582002-07-20T16:15:00.000-04:002002-07-20T16:17:04.000-04:00Word of warning: I don't expect this particular 'posting' to make sense to anyone. Basically, I need to try to write out my current impressions about some stuff I've been reading, to figure out what I do understand, and what I don't. So, err, without (much) further ado...
I'm still reading my books on real and complex analysis, but I've also got a new book called Gauge Fields, Knots, and a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-791598012002-07-19T14:46:00.000-04:002002-07-19T14:48:31.000-04:00I've been silent for a while now. Main reason is, I haven't felt very motivated to write lately. Mind you, I've been keeping up my reading. I've read a couple of great fiction books (libraries are a wonderful thing), and I have another technical book now, with yet another in the mail from bn.com.
So. One of the fiction books is called Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russel. On the surface, this is a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-789428252002-07-14T15:34:00.000-04:002002-07-14T15:38:38.000-04:00Je suis à ma maison encore. Québec est très beau. Mon Français est terrible, mais je n'avais pas dû l'employer pendant six années... a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-785330432002-07-03T22:38:00.000-04:002002-07-03T22:38:43.476-04:00I'll be out of town for a week and a half starting July 4. I'm quite unlikely to have net access during that time, so no updates are likely. Heh, I suppose I've been slacking on the blogging front the last few days, but I've been running about like a ferret on crack doing various stuff, and haven't really had the time or the inspiration. Hopefully I'll have some updates when I return.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-783887332002-06-30T14:36:00.000-04:002002-06-30T14:37:16.000-04:00Hmm. Blogspot seems to be dead. edit: Yup, it's still dead.a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-783720552002-06-30T00:41:00.000-04:002002-06-30T00:41:50.090-04:00I've promised myself that I won't put political or social commentary on this page when I started it. That was because I didn't want it to be like the stereotypical "war-blog", devoted to mindless political masturbation and link propagation. I still hold to that principle, but I'm going to violate it right now, with the intention of it being a one-time kind of thing. I do it because I want to a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-783509352002-06-29T10:42:00.000-04:002002-06-29T10:52:36.000-04:00The last couple of days, I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about hairy balls.
No! Wait! Don't leave! It's not what it sounds like!
I've been trying to get a picture of what 'bundles' are like. My best effort so far goes like this. Manifolds are too abstract to deal with intuitively for me. So let's just use a simple accesible manifold, just a sphere in 3D (aka a ball), as a stand in a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-782921622002-06-27T21:08:00.000-04:002002-06-27T21:08:49.356-04:00Subtle is the Lord. It's the title of a book I've got to read someday, and it's also the first thing (after a suitably earthy expletive) that came to my little atheist mind today when I learned that the right-hand-rule of electromagnetism is a crock. According to sources I trust, if one does electromagnetism properly, using differential forms and other relatively modern mathematical objects, a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-782076422002-06-25T23:57:00.000-04:002002-06-26T00:00:18.000-04:00I've caught the flu, and I feel like a used kleenex. What's more, it's likely an imported flu (from Russia, most likely). Joy.
In more pleasant news, I was reading Spivak while on The Throne, and I think I'm actually not completely off my rocker in my initial impression of bundles. They are, apparently, 'just' a fancy way of saying you've got a tangent vector space to a manifold. The 'a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-781314972002-06-24T09:56:00.000-04:002002-06-24T10:01:13.000-04:00I'm switching to a strict regimen of Strichartz and Needham for the next few days. This was brought on by the fact that I can feel my understanding of Spivak slipping away from me faster than a radical libertrarian's screed on government slides off a slippery slope*. Basically, I'm just not grasping tangent bundles in any meaningful way. I can't just read the proofs anymore, and I just stare a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-780844712002-06-22T23:59:00.000-04:002002-06-22T23:59:03.960-04:00I saw Mr. Thumpy tonight. Or at least, so suggests some circumstantial evidence. Whatever I saw was greyish, was about the size of a rabbit, and made the same kind of noise while running that MrThumpy's made when I've been able to positively identify him. Squirrels aren't generally out that late, and it didn't seem like a cat. So, most probably it was a rabbit, and that means Mr. Thumpy.
a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-780684702002-06-22T13:36:00.000-04:002002-06-22T13:36:47.886-04:00Heh. Reed College is unique among the school webpages I've hit in that their 'look at our perfect pretty students' pictures, are, well, not. This suggests that either a) Reed only has unattractive people or b) Reed is actually being honest and more-or-less randomly picking average representatives of the student body. I kinda like Reed, actually. I considered applying there back in high schoola. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-780678832002-06-22T13:13:00.000-04:002002-06-22T13:18:23.000-04:00Sigh. I've been doing some surfing around college websites. As I expected, I outright don't qualify for transfer at most of the universities I'd consider attending, and all the ones where I 'technically' may qualify more or less say 'don't bother' given certain stats (such as mine). And I can't say I blame them - I'd do the same if I was sitting in an admissions office. Expected, but still a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-780528742002-06-22T00:09:00.000-04:002002-06-22T00:16:16.000-04:00Score. I can finally run about a mile in about seven minutes*. This is admittedly pathetic compared to most people my age, but in high school, I 'ran' a mile in fourteen minutes. Now granted, part of that was an extended 'fuck all ya'll' to the very idea of a mandatory gym class, but a bigger part of it was that I was simply a slow and stupid dork. Now I'm a faster dork (whose intrinsic a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-779963252002-06-20T17:24:00.000-04:002002-06-20T17:40:24.000-04:00The promised details on Theorem 9, Ch2:
First, some terminology. In differential geometry the objects studied are manifolds. A manifold is just a space that looks like R^n if you look at any little part of it. R^n is just normal flat space, as R is just the real line, and the n stands for its dimension (n = 3 for the space we live in*). In general, a manifold can look like R^n's of differinga. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-779603972002-06-19T22:11:00.000-04:002002-06-20T00:32:11.000-04:00Praise Jebus. I finally have a grasp on Theorem 9 (Chapter 2). That bitch had me tied in knots and has been slapping me around for the last two days, but I think I may finally have it spanked for good*. At the least, I've some leverage. More details forthcoming.
The above is not intended to serve as an endorsement of, or even commentary on, BDSM or anything like it. Get your mind out of the a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-778745952002-06-17T23:54:00.000-04:002002-06-17T23:54:40.380-04:00I saw Mr. Thumpy today! He was jumping about in the grass on someone's back yard. It was dark, but it was definitely Mr. Thumpy: he was gray, had large ears, and he moved like rabbit would, in spurts, actually making dull 'thumps' with what I assume to be rear legs during the initial phases of acceleration. I also saw the-cat-with-bells-on (I have got to think of a catchier, simpler name for a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-778133522002-06-16T13:56:00.000-04:002002-06-16T13:56:19.743-04:00I got chased by a cat last night. I was jogging, and a cat (the one with the cow-bell on his neck) jumped out from under a car, probably mistaking me for a mouse or something. He then jogged after me for a short while, but quickly lost interest and went to investigate a fascinating patch of grass.
In other news, I've read the first chapter of Spivak, and am in the second chapter. The first a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-777619802002-06-14T21:41:00.000-04:002002-06-14T21:46:54.000-04:00This is amusing. Day before yesterday, when I was reading Strichartz, I found out more than I ever wanted to know about sets. Don't get me wrong, I think I can see the intrinsic interest of the topic, but it just didn't grab me. Anyways, I learned about various obscure things such as boundedness, compactness, and other sundry bits and pieces. So, this evening I'm reading Spivak's Differentiala. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-777515242002-06-14T15:52:00.000-04:002002-06-14T15:54:19.000-04:00The first two volumes of Michael Spivak's A Comprehensive Introduction To Differential Geometry arrived today. They are absolutely beautiful. Everything from the pretty artistic covers (by Spivak himself), to the sweet typesetting, to the satisfyingly heavy, glossy smooth paper, to the 'new book' scent, to the exposition (at least in the beginning - I've only read a tiny bit so far). And cheapa. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-777136902002-06-13T17:46:00.000-04:002002-06-13T17:46:55.820-04:00So I've jumped back to Visual Complex Analysis. Having spent the last few days with Strichartz, the difference is striking. Needham actually gives intuition in spades, motivates his arguments, is fun to read, and all-around blows Strichartz clean out of the water on everything except rigour. And to be honest, I don't give a crap about rigour for rigour's sake. I know, in a vague intellectual a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-776842302002-06-13T00:34:00.000-04:002002-06-13T17:34:52.000-04:00I'm testing mozblog! And it seems to work. Nice.
a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-776762782002-06-12T20:43:00.000-04:002002-06-12T20:55:18.000-04:00Yay! I'm done with Chapter 3 of Strichartz, "The Topology of the Real Line". This calls for tea and cake and/or candy, I think. Also, I'm seriously considering getting another book on analysis, name Abbott's Understanding Analysis as a supplement to Strichartz. Basically, Strichartz is admirably in-depth, but I just don't feel that I'm getting as much intuition from him as I'd like. Perhaps a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-776356572002-06-11T22:25:00.000-04:002002-06-11T22:31:18.000-04:00I'm back from tonight's jog. The air outside is warm, with a soup-like consistency. The air inside the house still reeks pungently of flaming pizza. The high points of the jog were seeing a cat, and getting yapped at by a couple of pocket-pooches out walking their human.
I've made some respectable* progress in my real analysis text today - I've knocked over the chapter on the construction of a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3495147.post-776217632002-06-11T15:53:00.000-04:002002-06-11T15:53:30.000-04:00Whoa. We just had a fire in the house. Luckily, it was localized to the inside of the microwave. My brother decided to nuke some frozen pizza. He says he set the thing to three minutes, but I guess he hit zero one too many times, as the thing caught fire. As an added surprise, it turns out that none of the smoke detectors in the house work. We only found out about it because I asked him a. geonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06850566350574106446noreply@blogger.com0