New Toy

So yesterday I decided that it was about time I bought a cable to hook up my laptop to the HDTV. It so happened that I have a Best Buy Rewards certificate that expired yesterday, so I headed over to buy it. The timing of the purchase coincided with the fact that we don't have Fox on Dish Network and I wanted to watch the finale of Dollhouse on a big screen, and it worked like a charm (luckily I also had a cable to transfer the sound to the TV, too).

Now I really want to purchase as wireless keyboard so I can sit on the couch with my mouse and keyboard and play games/write papers with a huge monitor. Of course, I could also do this if I bought an extension for the cable, so I may do that instead. I do know that the first moment I possibly can I'm creating a desktop with an appropriate video card to use an HDTV as my only monitor. And yes, I know that will be in many years, but it's still good to have long-term goals, right?

You've got to be effing kidding me

So I parked a quarter of an inch over the white line today on campus. Normally, I would fix this, but since I was parking after 5:00 pm and the lot isn't full then plus I was parking far away from any stairway (and therefor not in prime space) I figured I'd let it slide this time.

But then I get back from class and see that I have a $40 ticket for parking over the line. In fact, I wasn't over the line, I was on the line. And there were no other cars near mine.

What. The. Eff.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the car (because I didn't see the ticket until I had already moved) but I'm thinking about appealing because the ticket says "over" when in fact I was "on." Not that I think it'll make a difference in a bureaucracy, considering that campus transportation has to pay for all its operations through the sale of permits and tickets.

Pandora

So I used Pandora when it first came out (when I was at Bolthouse). But since I got Soren I had pretty much stopped using it. Recently, however, I wanted to listen to a specific genre of music that Soren doesn't have. Rob thankfully reminded me of Pandora, and I've been listening to it since. It seems to me like they've gotten better algorithims for picking songs, although that could also be because I've better defined my stations.

Anyways, I recently identified a quandry that Pandora leaves me in. I can't take Pandora with me everywhere. While it's great for doing homework while I'm at home or at school, I can't take it with me in the car, or on the trail. So thanks to Pandora I'm going to be finding all sorts of new songs I like, but I'm still going to have to buy them if I want to take them with me. And facing a 10 hour train ride soon (round trip), I need some new music.

Star Trek

Who wants to go see Star Trek this weekend?

I learned something today

Today I got a great example of how to not present a paper.

Some specific points learned:

• Do not put up a powerpoint side and then say, "I'll just let you read this for a second."
• Do not face the screen for your entire presentation.
• Do not put so much information on your slide that you end up using size 8 font.

This one time in band class...

I went to my cousin's spring concert for band today, and realized that I miss making music with a group of other people. Granted, when I get really desperate for some music, I can go into my room and play my guitar, but there's something about being in band and playing with other people that is much cooler. Part of that comes from the fact that I'm not a soloist (in anything I'd rather do something with a group - projects, sports, and the like), but I think it's just part of the nature of music that it's a social thing.

Anyways, it made me realize that I miss high school wind ensemble, both because I miss that sort of music and because I miss playing with other people. The music that I heard today was more 'band' music than 'wind ensemble' music. I think I shall go on iTunes and download some of the songs we played in high school. That is, if I can remember more than like three of them.

Wa?

Not sure how I feel about the fact that it's May 1st and it's raining outside. I was going to go on a run today, but that looks unlikely (not because of the rain, but because of the cold).

My dreams last night involved doing my micro homework - not really sure what that means, except that I've been doing too much work lately. I'm not used to mundane dreams and I want my fun adventure ones back!

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.

Necessities

Dish network still doesn't cary Fox or CBS in Bakersfield. This completely freaked me out around 6. Luckily, uncle has DirectTV (and watches the shows that he should on Friday) so I got my Terminator and Dollhouse fix. Next week is already set up for a repeat. We bring the orange juice (for Screwdrivers), he provides the large television, and I answer any plot questions he has about both shows. All this while my dad falls asleep and misses an entire show.

The Office

If I worked in an office, I would so buy all of these to show them off. As it is, I think my parents might freak out if I bought yet more toys to try and find a place for in my room.

I'm in trouble

You're know you're in trouble when you have fun spending hours running statistical regression and analysis on census data from the California Gold Rush.

Yay soccer!

I much prefer outdoor to indoor soccer. This is mostly because my strength is being in being an outside midfielder is opening up the field and using as much space as possible - and this isn't really something you can do playing indoor. But, it's still soccer, and given no alternative, I'll play whatever I can.

So I decided to check out the indoor league here yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised. The field is much bigger than I expected (not basketball court sized like I was expecting), and instead of playing on hardwood floor, it's a bit closer to turf. So even though I get stretch out like I would prefer, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

The really frustrating thing is my team. They're a great group of people, but none of them have played soccer competitively (or if they have, not at the level I'm used to), and I often feel like I'm still coaching when I show up for games. Not that it's horrible - just a little frustrating, although obviously not frustrating enough to make me stop having fun or playing. And besides, maybe they'll learn something!

Of course, it's lame that the league just started and I'm going to miss the next three weeks because I'll be out of town.