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[Oct. 30th, 2009|05:36 pm] |
Not sure why this is so funny to me:
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| Sir, we've run out of symbols. |
[Sep. 21st, 2009|03:10 am] |
Sometimes it bothers me how there's so many symbols oft used or reserved in mathematics and physics that we end up with absurdities such as equations containing many upper and lower case greek letters (point and case, the wave functions of hydrogen orbitals- R(r)THETA(theta)Y(phi) each of which contains many more variables depending on the quantum numbers).
I present to you the most ridiculous looking equation yet.
Yes, those are stars, flats, and sharps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curl_(mathematics)#Usage |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 29th, 2009|04:07 pm] |
Mike: Rusty Vaginas!
Me: Penis Tetanus!
Mike: Lockcock! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 25th, 2009|10:20 pm] |
I've really gotten lazy with this thing, and realized I have almost no idea how to use livejournal anymore.
Goddamn kids and their technology! But seriously, if anybody could show me how to go back and view old friend's entries instead of the 10 or 20 most recent, I'd appreciate it.
I suppose this will be a sweeping update of how my summer's been going. Movies/Books first!
Saw "wizard people dear reader" the other day. It can be a bit to sit through, but it definitely has it's moments. For those of you who have no idea what it is, see "George Washington" on youtube by Brad O'nealy, then imagine that guy narrating all of the first Harry Potter movie. Also watched the first season of "The Tick" (the old animated series). Anybody who likes making fun of superhero cliches, or just seeing awesome villains (Chairface!), I highly recommend it. The magic school bus holds up by the way, some of the science I didn't know, and they constantly make fun of the Mexican kid. Which is terrible, but hilarious when you realize you were raised on that shit.
I've been reading "On The Road" by Kerouac, and "Surely You Must Be Joking Mr. Feynmann" by the man himself. I've got far to much to say about the former to put it in here. As for the latter, it's fun to just flip to a random page and start reading. One tail includes how he taught himself the art of lockpicking while working at the Manhattan Project (as a hobby). He ended up regularly breaking into places holding the entirety of the U.S. nuclear secrets, and leaving silly notes for the tight-assed Military brass to read.
Music I've gotten into:
I'll let youtube videos talk for me.
Some amazing beat machine skills:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P1W3xjUio8
Garage Rock is back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f6bo6nw7K4
Art:
Been doing some pen sketches. Nothing too special, just some fun. Found some watercolors downstairs, and I'm gunna pick up a brush soon. Also going to learn woodworking from Brittski's gramps. Been contemplating optical illusions a great deal. I'll definitely have some to show you if I get off my goddamn ass.
Work:
I applied at some church wanting to build a self sustaining organic garden. They emailed me back saying they'd love to have me. I replied asking when I could come in and meet with them. They never replied. Finally got a job while the art fair was in town. Hauled my ass flippin' Gyros 12-13 hours a day for 4 days. Made a nice $10 an hour plus tips (was surprised people tipped us for making them Gyros when they already cost $8 a pop.. it's not like we waited tables, we just made them and handed them out). The booth next door, Pizza Pino's, was pretty impressed with our work, and offered all of the college kids at our booth jobs. Applied a few days ago. Haven't heard back. Also got asked to help illustrate a children's book. I said I'd love to- it was some Dr. Seuss-esque book about fuel cells (nerdy and strange!). After accepting the position, they never contacted me again. I see a trend here.
On Monday I'm going to start teaching fourth graders from Ypsilanti some maths. Originally applied to make some money, but they ended up not having enough funding to pay their tutors. Doing it for free- it can never hurt to learn teaching techniques. (Although, I also get a letter of recommendation from the Dean of the School of Education, so that'll help get a math lab job this fall).
Other:
Been working on identifying mushrooms and wild plants. Finally made a trip out to the arb the other day to do some hunting. All the good spots I noticed a while back were picked clean unfortunately. There was one particular log that was full of oyster mushroom mycelium, but looks like the deer got to it. Finally figured out how to harvest wild carrots though. Wild carrots have a taproot about the size of your finger, with a soft outer shell and hard woody inside. I used to think you wanted young ones that hadn't developed that hard inside yet, but in fact they start off woody. What you want is a big old fat one that's had plenty of time to build it's skin. Once you boil it, the outer skin gets really soft, sugary, and falls right off the wooden inside. Tasty. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 7th, 2009|04:22 pm] |
probability question:
Premise:
You are flipping a coin, and have a 50/50 chance of heads vs tails.
Now, you know it doesn't alternate every time, sometimes you get heads 3, 4 times in a row.
But you know that the limit as you approach an infinite number of coin tosses is 50/50.
The generally accepted view is that there is an equal probability of getting heads or tails with each toss, that is, the probability of the next toss is independent of the last.
But think about this for a bit.
If you are flipping a coin, and the first ten flips is heads, does this predispose you to getting more tails in the next flips?
What about if the first 10,000 flips were tails? The coin toss must converge on 50/50. Are you due for 10,000 heads? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|09:35 pm] |
"Next, we consider the science of psychology. Incidentally, psychoanalysis is
not a science: it is at best a medical process, and perhaps even more like witch-
doctoring."
Word up Richard Feynman |
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[Jun. 3rd, 2009|05:12 pm] |
I am $3000 short of making a death ray.
Eat that shit Tesla |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 21st, 2009|12:41 pm] |
Fall Classes:
PHYS 340: Waves Heat and Light - this should be fun and easy, since I've taken intro quantum and optics
PHYS 341: WHL Lab - yay, an optics/thermo lab
EECS 320: Semiconductors - taught by Pallab Bhattcharya.. he wrote the book we use in the photonic semiconductors class
EECS 434: Photonics (wooo!)
Going to audit PHYS 390: Modern Physics to see how it's taught through LSA. I think they cover phonons. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 18th, 2009|10:58 pm] |
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brotha jack mcduff, you're the shit |
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| Possible classes next semester |
[Apr. 1st, 2009|05:48 am] |
EECS 434 - Photonics
PHYS 453 - Quantum Mechanics
Math 454 - PDEs w/ Fourier Analysis
CMPLXSYS 541 - Introduction to Nonlinear Dynamics and the Physics of Complexity
EECS 216 - Introduction to Signals and Systems
EECS 320 - Introduction to Semiconductor Devices
MATH 419 - Linear Spaces and Matrix Theory
MATSCIE 400 - EMO Mod Dev Tech
PHYSICS 406 - Statistical and Thermal Physics
MATH 513 - Introduction to Linear Algebra
MATH 412 - Introduction to Modern Algebra
Booring!
CEE 211 - Statics and Dynamics
ME 235 - Thermodynamics
PHYS 340 - Waves Heat and Light |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 23rd, 2009|03:48 am] |
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jesus fucking christ, the integral is NOT 0! |
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| iiinteresting |
[Mar. 20th, 2009|04:59 pm] |
So, I'm in charge of this extra-curricular group researching anaerobic digestion, and we've been trying to find a place to build and house biogas reactors. Enter Gabriel's garden, a inner city agriculture project that I had heard about, but never gotten a chance to go see yet. The guy in charge says they've got a workspace, a barn to house the digester, materials, and much more.
So, we go out there, and the first thing that greets our eyes is a barn covered in crazy awesome 60's flower child graffiti. There's old barn wheels and bricks everywhere, windchimes made out of remelted glass and kitchen utensils, the occasional trash bag just sitting out, and dozens upon dozens of odd trinkets everywhere.
We eat dinner with them- all of the food was donated to them by some local food markets who were going to throw it out, and then embark on the grand tour. He's planning on turning the barn into some kind of hippy commune/hostel, with a kitchen, workshop, dining room, and maybe some kind of hot tub or sauna. There's 20 beds in the loft, a few solar hot water heaters laying around that he scrounged up, dozens of broken down machines, bikes, cabinets, power tools, a welding rack, nails, screws, paint- the whole damn barn is so full of shit you can't set foot more than a few steps inside. In the basement of the adjacent house, there's a geothermal heating and cooling system that needs setting up, a cellar with brewing equipment, and a set up for making biodiesal. The back patio has the beginnings of a giant ceramic solar oven, and the back yard is the most massive piece of property I'd imagine to come out of Ypsilanti, complete with huge beds of compost.
He explains how he's been setting up little communes like this all over- self sustaining mini-communities in low income areas, where people with little future just might get inspired to join the effort. Creating some kind of network, so you can just travel all over, and all you need to have food, electricity, and a roof over your head is the will to help out others.
I highly doubt we'll be putting in the biodigesters here this summer, it's way too cluttered and undeveloped... but I might've found myself a little playground. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 26th, 2009|11:29 pm] |
ever find yourself getting depressed over the people you seem to never see again when you leave for college?
I mean, not just the close friends, but those people that were just kind of there, and while you appreciated them, you never bonded on a deep level, and thus, took them for granted.
I feel like there's two hundred people I just don't see anymore, and haven't seen in years. And damn, I miss everybody. |
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