Higher Mathematics
You know you've reached an upper level math class when statements like
make sense.
Last Semester
Tom Howard
Tom Howard, a Catholic scholar, author, and teacher, spoke today in chapel. Unsurprisingly, he was spot on about everything he said. Also unsurprisingly, I think 75% of the people in attendance missed the whole thing because they weren't paying attention. More about that later.
One of the main points he made is that worship need not be (perhaps he went so far as to say "should not be") an emotional event, but rather something more intellectual - an action performed, not an emotional response. At this statement, my intellect (ironically) leaped with joy. It's something I've believed for quite some time, but unfortunately, when I've expressed my opinion to fellow Protestants, I'm usually given one of two reactions: 1) I'm put down being told that I must feel my personal relationship with Christ for it to be authentic; or 2) I'm given looks of the utmost concern, as if my very soul is at stake on this point, and am told something vague like 'don't worry, it will come'. A combination of these two reactions is also possible. Unfortunately for me, articulating my thoughts on the spot is not my biggest strength, so the debate is usually not very long or fruitful for either party. I think those same people would have had a problem with the liturgy we said in chapel today. We said the phrase "Christ have mercy" or "Have mercy on us, O Jesus" dozens of times in response to small statements, usually of the form "Jesus, the Redeemer of sins" or "Jesus, lover of Chastity", for example. Now, I am not used to liturgical readings at all, but it occurred to me during the liturgy that the repetition served to really drive home our need of Christ's mercy and a reminder of all the things Christ is. As Howard said (paraphrased), "If someone asked you to describe Jesus in 25 lines, what would you say? 'Jesus is like, wow, awesome'? The liturgy gives you the words you could not come up with yourself." It is not spontaneous or emotional, and it strikes me as a truer form of worship than jumping around waving your hands in the air. Not that that is bad, necessarily.
He wasn't able to touch on it much, but I think the Catholics have the right idea about Communion too. We Protestants have much to often just an assembly line form of communion: We distribute the elements as efficiently as possible, and say "Here, take your saltine and your fruit punch, and think about Jesus!" Yes, this is an exaggeration, but if you have to rise from you seat, solemnly approach the Priest, and take real bread and wine, I think the experience will be much more humbling and genuine.
Unfortunately, as I said, I think a lot of people missed the whole thing, and it was probably those who needed to hear it the most. I was surrounded by people reading (bad) or sending text messages (worse) or just chatting with their neighbors (awful). There were two girls behind me who I think were much more concerned with how fashionable they looked than learning anything. They even talked to each other during the hymn we sang. Now, not even they would dare speak during a prayer. I think anyone at Gordon would blush at the thought of talking or making noise while someone was praying in chapel. What they don't understand is that singing a hymn, reciting a liturgy, and paying attention when someone is teaching about God are all just as important, and are all in their own rights acts of worship. I wanted to smack them in the head and tell them to grow up and listen up, but I'm afraid the results would not be positive. Actually, the results could probably be the impetus for Tom Howard's next book, Blunt Force Trauma to the Head is Not Enough.
Howard said a lot more, and I could not disagree with a single point he made. I might write more on it later after it stews in my mind for a bit. For now, these were my initial reactions.
Gordon Summer of Code
I post so infrequently that every time I log in to WordPress, there's a new security release available. Sigh.
My summer is going well, more or less. I'm doing math research at Gordon - yes, there is such a thing, why do people keep looking at me like that? - with linear programs (LPs), trying to discover some deep relationships between a primal LP and its dual, and trying to write some software in C++, which is rather difficult seeing as 1) I've used only Python for the last several months and 2) I don't know C++. But I'll figure it out...the C++, that is - I'm still pretty stumped on the whole research bit.
I'm living in a fantastic Gordon-owned apartment this summer in Lynn. Gordon owns 7 apartments here, and there are about 20 of us living here. The kitchen is huge and the place is air conditioned - it doesn't get much better than that. Plus, Alice lives right down the hall, so we get to see each other a lot, which is very nice.
None of my summer projects are coming to fruition. I had hoped to be a Python master by the end of the summer, and I've gotten closer, but not as much as I wanted. I haven't learned Blender 3D at all. I haven't read any books. I haven't taken the GREs. Yikes - this is not a happy list! I need to get cracking - there's not very much summer left.
To get things started, I'm going to go to bed. I think the light from my laptop is bugging my roommate. Perhaps I'll write more soon...I don't know if anyone reads my site anymore though!
Mouse MD on Google Video
Mouse MD, the award winning Gordon Globes movie featuring yours truly, is now on google video. Tell your friends, tell your loved ones, tell your enemies.
Currently Reading:
Programming Python
Random
Did you know 1239098123098123 is prime? Neither did I, but when I went to show Mike a math program I've been playing with, I showed him how quickly the is_prime() function works, which unsurprisingly tells you whether or not a number is prime. I completely randomly typed 1239098123098123, and it returned "True". I also guessed 1231231 was prime a couple weeks ago. Do I have some kind of inherit prime-guessing skill?
Winter is Waning
This semester so far has been one of drama, both personally and otherwise; let's discuss the otherwise (Less interesting? Perhaps. More web-worthy? For sure.)
First, there is the Laptop Drama. Many of you know all of some of this already, but here's the story. Last summer I purchased my computer from Xmeld Computers in Utah. I made the switch to a laptop for the convenience of bringing it back and forth between school and being able to use it in places like the library and such. The laptop looked like a steal for the money - great specs, etc. When I got it the left speaker died immediately - a loud, static filled death. Attempts to contact Xmeld were in vain since they disappeared from the face of the earth. Months later, they reemerged, with a new store and having undergone "financial restructuring" (read: bankruptcy?) So, I sent them my computer at the beginning of this semester, around January 15th or so. It was chronically overheating, rebooting, had sluggish keyboard response, everything. So they sent it to MSI (the manufacturer) for motherboard replacement. SIX WEEKS later I get my laptop back, having been quoted a 7-10 day turnaround. And ZERO communication from Xmeld. They didn't answer there phones, emails, anything - not even threats to file complaints with the BBB. By some miracle we had a cell number for the store owner, so I contacted him and he didn't know where the laptop was. MSI said they shipped it to me directly. Come to find out it had been sitting in their warehouse for God knows how long, with neither business bothering to figure this out. So now I have the laptop back - new motherboard, which is nice, but they still didn't fix the speaker, which blows my mind. At least it isn't overheating, although it still runs hot. And the battery still only lasts an hour. 
(Not that I expected that to change.) Moral of the story: don't buy from small companies without calling them first, or just don't in general; and don't buy MSI laptops. They suck. (But pray mine lasts at least another two years!)
So that's that. Classes are going well - actually quite well, they are all very interesting and I'm doing a lot of great math and programming, my two favorite academic things. 
I'm actually coding up a suite of numerical algorithms in Python, which is a blast.
Speaking of being a geek, Mike and I almost started a website, www.geekshui.com. By almost I mean there's something there, but not much to speak of. However, once we do get it going it will be a repository of all things Mike and Jeff, geeky and funny and otherwise. I've been toying with the idea of posting the source files for my python code once we do have it up and running.
Anyway, that's all for now. One thing of interest though: A clip of Albert Einstein himself briefly discussing E=mc2: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/lega-audio.html.
Winter is Nigh
Last Friday marked my second Gordon Globes victory in a row. My friend Chris and I made Mouse, MD - a parody of House MD, which is more or less the best show on TV. The basic plot was that I (Mouse) was a genius computer repair diagnostician who saved the computer which controls all the student data at Gordon. We spent copious amounts of hours on the darn thing...many, many late nights (some till 4:00 in the morning for me; one night Chris never left the video editing lab). I spent 20 hours on the 21 second title sequence. In any case, we won Best Picture for the night, which was really rewarding. The best part was when the audience erupted in applause when they saw the giant M on the screen and instantly knew what our movie was.
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In other news, I bought egg nog yesterday. Nothing says "Holiday season" like a cup of 'nog.
No time
Still unbelievably busy. No time for anything, including this blog entry. This year's Gordon Globes movie due soon. Big exam Friday. Unreasonable amounts of reading to do, also for Friday. Must always sacrifice study quality of one class to do better in another, or sacrifice study quality for all class in exchange for sleep. It's the opportunity cost of it all, as we discuss in economics. Projects of my own exist only in my mind; sometime maybe I'll see them come to fruition. They could be quite interesting if done well; one programming project, one philosophy project.
Hello, world
Abstract: This paper will communicate it summary form the various activities which I have been involved in since the last post (non-inclusive). As a warning, it may contain generic college-student statements making references to fatigue, homework, etc. You have been warned.
1. School: Classes are going well, but keeping me incredibly busy. This year marks my first 300 level math course, the average difficulty per problem reflects that fact. I also have the pleasure of having two massive projects to do this semester, one large paper, and an unreasonable amount of reading for the remaining class. But I'm learning a lot and still managing to tread water, even if I'm swallowing a bit here and there.
2. Work: I'm working more this year than I have in past years, which translates to complete elimination of free time and a bigger paycheck. I work at CET more and I TA for the introductory computer science lab. Fortunately this year we get to play with programming lego robots, so that should be fun.
3. Personal: Apartment life has been great. It's awesome to have a kitchen and the relative freedom of extended visitation. It's difficult to find time to go shopping though, and there isn't exactly much variety in my diet. But I'm working on it. Being in an apartment also also allows Alice and I much more time together than we would otherwise have, which is a huge plus. Also, Mike and Amy came to visit last weekend. It was a blast and the first time they've been to Gordon (I visited mike two or three times at Norwich, so it was definitely his turn!)
4. Conclusion: I keep hoping to catch up on work to have a few free hours to work on some personal projects. So far it hasn't happened.
5. Footnote: I think my next computer will be a Mac. PC loyalties = broken.
Twitter
- 6feetover: Simplify. July 28, 2010
- 6feetover: Every time someone strikes @gruber down on twitter, he just retweets and becomes more powerful than we can possibly imagine. July 23, 2010
- 6feetover: Wow. The sky looks like Black Doom right now. July 20, 2010
- 6feetover: "oh_no_what_have_i_done.sql" is probably the best thing I have ever named a file. (thankfully, I hadn't done anything bad.) July 15, 2010
Lifestream
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Shared Paulener Hefeweizen.
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Shared Paulener Hefeweizen.
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Shared Smithwicks.
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Shared Smithwicks.
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Shared Belhaven Ale.
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Shared Belhaven Ale.
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Shared Rails Mail Server.
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Shared Ipswich Winter Ale.
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Shared Ipswich Winter Ale.
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Published New Blog.
