Loyal to a Fault

If you haven't checked out Dollhouse yet, this is my plea for you to do so. Everyone I know that's watched it has really liked it, even people who aren't into the types of movies and shows I like. Please don't think that this is a niche show that you wouldn't enjoy.



Anyways, it's Watch Dollhouse Week, which is a not-so-subtly subtle attempt to bring attention to the fact that the fans of Whedon are very loyal and Fox should renew the show. The last five episodes have been really good (not that the ones before weren't, but you could easily jump in starting with "Man on the Street"). Episodes are available on Hulu and Fox On Demand, so you shouldn't have difficulty finding them. It all leads up to the new episode on Friday, which is the penultimate of the season. From the preview, good things promise to happen.

Kindle would destroy me

After reading 880 pages of a novel in about 12 house, I realize that owning a Kindle would probably destroy me. If I could, at a click, acquire not only a massive book but a massive series, I'm not sure what would happen, but it would probably be bad. The only saving grace would be that I couldn't get graphic novels or comics on Kindle. But that would be a small solace.

So please, friends, if I ever talk to you about a desire to buy a Kindle, talk me out of it. For my own sake.

Late night reading material

Enjoyable quotes from an article discussing interstellar trade and interest rates with travel approaching the speed of light.

"This paper, then, is a serious analysis of a ridiculous subject, which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics."

"The second feature of interstellar transactions cannot be so easily dealt with (physicists are not as tolerant as economists of the practice of assuming difficulties away)."

"Readers may, however, wish to use general relativity to extend the analysis to trade between planets with large relative motion. This extension is left as an exercise for interested readers because the author does not understand the theory of general relativity, and therefore cannot do it himself."

"This proof has been for a special case; but the proposition is in fact relatively general. (The reader must, of course, be careful not to confuse relative generality with general relativity)."

Interesting spring board to think about arbitrage, communication limitations, and interstellar trade.

Summertime

It's hard to imagine that there's only a month left of the semester, although my lack of inclination to do work means that it must be true. I have two presentations, two papers, and three finals to look forward to this year, and then the summer starts. I may have to break a long standing tradition of refusing to partake in the horrible institution that is summer this summer, if only so that I can take a class that sounds interesting in the fall. Numerical Analysis of Differential Equations is the class, and the only bad thing about it is that a pre req is Differential Equations.

Other than that, I may be looking at taking two economics classes and as many math classes as I feel I can safely cram in the midst of those and soccer. A Probability Statistics class is almost a definite, and perhaps Calc III or Linear Algebra.

Warmness has finally hit Sacramento, which means that I no longer feel that it's necessary to wait until 3 pm to workout. Waiting until then usually means that I miss my window between lunch and needing to go to class, so this means I run far more regularly, although it also apparently means that I'm forcing the dogs to run in the heat, for which I got reprimanded by some random passerby today.

More Dr. Horrible please!

We all hoped this would come, but it's nice to hear them actually talking about it. I have to really hope that it's not a theatrical production, because I would more than likely fly to wherever they're putting it on to watch it. A movie or internet movie would be so much cheaper (for me).

Anyways, the people involved in Dr. Horrible are talking about a sequel, although they won't say what medium yet. And there's talk that the writers might find a way to bring back Penny (Felicia Day). This is surely a sequel that wouldn't disappoint.

Never been much for tradition

Much like my thanksgiving escapades (or lack of) I decided to spend Easter in Sacramento watching over the house and dogs. Other than wanting to strangle them frequently (the dogs), I enjoy having run of the house. It lets me get a lot more work done (and movies watched) than I can normally do.

So, despite it not being terribly tradition, I'm thoroughly enjoying my Easter evening of potstickers, a movie, and micro homework.

I hate FOX.

So so so so so much.

If Dollhouse isn't renewed for another season I will never, ever, trust FOX again.

Cause and Effect

If I had realized how busy my April was going to be, I'm not sure if I would have decided to do Script Frenzy. As it is, I may have to stop, as much as it pains me to leave something unfinished. I think it'll depend on this week (including the weekend) and how much I get done with an empty house (in November much of my writing also happened on a long weekend with an empty house).

I discovered that Bakersfield is actually bad for my health, as I spent almost four days walking (or more frequently lying down) in misery, yet I feel perfectly fine up here. Granted, most of that probably had to do with something I ate, but still. All correlation means causation!

Not sure if people have heard about the case in the Supreme Court about reverse discrimination of firefighters. Apparently a city threw out the results of an exam for promotion because none of the top 15 scorers (who would have been promoted) were black. 14 were white and one was latino. Anyways, I was discussing this with a classmate who writes code to test if hiring practices are discriminatory because it's what he deals with everyday, and we both think that throwing out the test is a load of bull. Just another example of correlation with no causation, in my opinion. Unless there's some way that the test was biased towards whites, then to throw out the results is discriminatory. I love that one of the city representatives said (to paraphrase) that they decided they could be sued by blacks if they kept the results, so they had to throw them out.

Yes, let's act in ways so that we don't get wrongfully sued, rather than in the correct way. That's a great stance!

Too short of a week

My family plays this game when we go to a pizza place: see how long you can go before getting a soda refill, then, once somebody else has decided to go, be the first to ask them to also get you a refill (only works for one other person due to the two hand limitation). It's the art of laziness.

My plans to get work done on various projects went badly due to painting projects and pain in general. I spent three days helping a friend paint a house they are planning on renting out, and a couple days lying on either the couch or my bed in pain. And yet I also managed to throw in a Monte Carlo night, ref four soccer games, and make an attempt at bowling (unfortunately it was league night and we couldn't play). Oh, and also watched Fargo for the first time (You betcha!). So not a completely wasted week, although I think I have some catch-up to play with Script Frenzy and my four papers/projects that I have this semester. I seriously thought about not coming to class tonight and staying in Bakersfield for another couple of days to get work done, but realized I'm far more likely to do stuff here in Sacramento than there, especially when the cousins are on spring break, and my quite place will be the campus library.