passed my master's defense!

yay! so today was my master's thesis defense. and it went swimmingly. a bunch of people showed up and asked some good questions, and it was great. my committee talked for a couple minutes and then it was official. now all I have to do is make a few small changes to my actual thesis and then submit that next week. and then I'll have my M.S. in physics. woo hoo!
the phd stuff will continue in the fall, only in the college of education. it will be a good change and I'm really looking forward to it.

So it goes.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. died yesterday. He was my favorite author and a huge inspiration to me. Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five are probably two of the most interesting books I have ever read. His humanist perspective on life and sharp wit made him truly unique and unforgettable. He will be sorely missed.

"Listen: The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just the way we can look at the stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever. When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes'." (from Slaughterhouse-Five)

As Jon Stewart said about him, "He made my life bearable." I hope that everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

So it goes.

Al Gore LIVE

yesterday I went to see Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth presentation here at ASU. I saw the movie in the theater last summer and was definitely touched by it then. but that was not even close to the same impact that seeing him give the presentation in person was. most of it was the same, but he actually added quite a bit of new slides and data and had taken out some stuff as well. it seemed more focused and his passion about the subject translated much better in the huge auditorium than it had across the movie screen. I'm really glad we had the opportunity to see that. :)

oh, and thesis status: I am submitting it tomorrow (!) for format review (ridiculous) and my defense is scheduled for april 18th. let's hope all the paperwork gets through ok so I don't have to worry about it much longer.

Grand Canyon

so it's spring break. finally. I was doing work all the way up until when we left on Sunday. so here was the plan: me, Katie, Hwi, Angel, Michael, and Michael's brother who was visiting were going to drive up to Sedona on Sunday, have some lunch, then head over to Michael's boss's cabin near Flagstaff, then on Monday head up to the Grand Canyon for the day. there was also talk of going skiing instead, but the ski place was closed because it's ridiculously warm right now. (today, for instance, it is supposed to be 96 which is TWENTY degrees warmer than average. that is insane.) anyway, no skiing for us. we also talked about going to Meteor Crater, but we ran out of time so we're going to have to go some other day.

so we had lots of fun. some of the highlights were me kicking everyone's ass at ping pong at the cabin, playing rummikub, taking pictures of the stars with my newly restored old school SLR (I'm still waiting to see if those came out), the sweet potato fries in Sedona, 7000 bananas, and hiking along the rim of the Canyon.

I posted pictures in a bunch of places: flickr, picasa, and facebook so you are welcome to check them out at any of those places (the same ones are in all three though). here's a couple of my favorites:









since we've gotten back I've done a whole lot of nothing. it's been great. so far, I have watched the entire first season of Lost (I'm trying to catch up) and started a new book. Oh, I finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics last week. it was really great. one of the most interesting books I've read in a while (it's a novel and has nothing to do with physics, by the way). so you should all check that out.

I'm a statistical rock star!

so, coming to grad school (especially in physics) meant that I would be subjecting myself to hours upon hours of painful studying, reading, thinking, and a general unableness to partake in the normal activities that a typical mid-twenties person would be privy to. (not that I am unhappy about my decision, just the contrary: I love the challenge and I am getting a lot out of everything.) it meant that those good-old days in high school where I would show up to an exam, not having studied (or even remembered there was a test), and not only finish earlier than everyone else, but also get one of the highest scores. (geometry class comes to mind. and of course, physics class.) and I sort of miss that.
well, today I got a bit of the old feeling back when I left my intro to stats midterm super early and then it was amplified when I found out that I got 100% on it. woo hoo! I am smart again! lol. (I also got 100% on my take-home exam we had last week. yay!) but seriously, this class is really easy and I can't believe that I am getting graduate credit for it. and that some people are finding it really difficult. a bit scary, really.

oh, so last weekend I hung out with math nerds at a mathematics education research conference in sunny San Diego. it was really nice. I learned a lot. my half hour talk went really well and I will be really happy when the accompanying paper is finished (this will be next friday). and then it will be spring break!

coffee coffee coffee

so my lovely friends got me a coffee and espresso machine for my birthday. which is perfect timing because the next week is going to be crazy (maybe worse than this week) and I'm going to need lots of caffeine. like tonight. coffee. yay coffee. trying to work on my presentation for the conference. it's going well. especially now that I have my second wind. from the coffee.

I love engineering paper. you know, the greenish-tinted graph paper? oh it's so nice. makes me feel smarter than I am.

happy birthday to me...

...a celebration in two parts

so Friday night I invited a bunch of people out to go roller skating. at a rink. the sort of thing you'd do for a 10 year old's birthday. only, it was "cosmic skating" so we got free glow necklaces. we were basically the oldest ones there (except for a few others like us). it was pretty hilarious. most of us hadn't skated in a decade or more, so some had some issues staying vertical for a while. (also, some people ran over or into a few of the younger skaters. heh.) but by the end, everyone seemed to remember how to skate in a circle so it was great. afterwards, we headed back to my apartment for some drinks and pie.

enjoy the pictures:

my birthday 07

Saturday I basically slept all day because I was exhausted from the long week of school and the roller skating madness.

ditto on Sunday.

yesterday, Monday, was my actual birthday, so I went out to dinner with a few friends at Oregano's (this amazing pizza/Italian place). it was a really nice dinner and a good way to end my birthday. thanks everybody for a great weekend!

oh, and I'm on facebook now. thanks Cogan for the final inspirational push to be on another social site. I think I might get rid of myspace. I hate that thing.

poor polar bears

read today's article from the New York Times on the global warming report issued yesterday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

everybody has the right...

I had an interesting weekend. Friday night, I saw Pan's Labyrinth with a few friends. I liked it, but I thought Children of Men was better (see this post).
Saturday I mostly slept in and cleaned up the apartment. later that night, I went to see a student production of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins on campus. it was great! I had been wanting to see it for a long time (ever since I heard Into the Woods probably (one of his other musicals)). and it didn't disappoint. it's a dark comedy about the people who have tried to kill U.S. presidents. it was an interesting take on events, some of which greatly changed the landscape of our country. never underestimate truly crazy people. they can convince themselves of anything. but, as the opening number says, it's a free country - "everybody has a right to be happy...no one can be put in jail for their dreams." we'll see. a couple of the songs have been stuck in my head since I saw it and I doubt they will subside anytime soon.
we lost our opening soccer game on Sunday, but we fought hard and I think once our team becomes a bit more cohesive as the season progresses, we'll continue to improve. go Brilliant! FC!


in other news, the new Shins CD is good, I got a free poster, and it's raining (even though it was a blissful 74 yesterday).

RENT OBC!

omg. I found the best thing ever online yesterday. someone has posted a video (of arguable quality) of a performance of the original broadway cast of RENT. this is something that I just figured I would never get to see. ever. (and no, even though the movie has six of the eight original cast members it's totally not the same thing.) so even though the video isn't great, it is still amazing to me.

(oh, and I'm going to go see it in a couple weeks! the weekend after my birthday. hooray!)

new look, new stuff

ok, so you might have noticed that I have changed the template. with the move to the new version of blogger, I have been able to update and move things around easier. you will notice that I have also updated my travelogue (which is almost finished, all but the last few days are done). another thing I have added is a widget with a feed from my google reader account of things that I think are cool. so check that out. any comments on the new look?

so a new semester has also started. I'm only taking one class, so hopefully I will be able to focus on finishing up my thesis and making some progress with my writing.

it's raining and our first soccer game of the season has been canceled. I am sad because there's no soccer (especially since last night, Jody and I rented the movie Goal! and it got us all pumped for today) but I also really like rain, so it's hard to be too upset. c'est la vie.

half-marathon!

so this past Sunday I ran the PF Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon. yep, that's 13.1 miles. I had done one before, about four and a half years ago, but that was so long ago I had kind of forgotten how long that really is. but here's the good news: it went really well! with one caveat: I pulled a muscle around mile 6. so that made the rest of the race a bit slower and more painful than it should have been. when I finished, I felt really good (except for my leg) and not hating life (as I had during and after the previous one).
my mom, step-dad, and uncle also ran the race (and I found out later that my friend Todd ran it also) so that was kind of nice. I ran the first two miles with my uncle because I luckily ran into him before the race started. the rest of the race I was on my own, with my lovely little iPod shuffle to provide some inspiration [at one point, Ok Go came on just as I needed a bit of a boost and the image of that hilarious treadmill routine really helped]. towards the end, Jody, Hwi, Katie, Angel, and Michael were waiting for me to cheer me on to the end. :) it was great to see them and give me a final push for a strong finish.



afterwards, everyone came back to my apartment for some lunch. later, some of us headed over to Jody's and spent the rest of the day in the hot tub and watched some movies. I spent most of yesterday on the couch being really sore. today it is much better and I think I'll be able to play soccer on Thursday. so that's great! thanks everyone for your encouragement!

children of men

on Saturday Jody and I went to see the new movie "Children of Men", directed by Alfonso Cuaron. first of all, it was amazing. second of all, it was hard to watch. but not necessarily in a bad way. the movie was so intense, engrossing, and realistic that you really believed what was happening. however, this futuristic society that is imagined in the film is extremely disturbing and violent. one of the most disturbing things is that if the world was faced with this premise, that we could no longer conceive children, it would most certainly descend into some kind of chaotic world, where hope no longer seems possible.
the cinematography was absolutely amazing. there were two long shots in particular that were chilling. the lack of editing on these sequences makes you feel uncomfortable, which adds to the drama of what's happening on screen.
it was an excellent film. you should go see it (unless, of course, you're one of those people who prefer only happy fuzzy warm movies. this is not for you.)

oh, and that cover of "ruby tuesday" fits perfectly. well done on the soundtrack.

happy new year!

wow 2007 is here already. that is totally crazy. the years are just whizzing by. and we still don't have rocket packs or those cars from the Jetsons (best cartoon ever). and I guess Ray Bradbury was a bit off too since we're nowhere near being on Mars.

so yeah. I guess I'm not making any resolutions this year. I'm still working on the ones from last year and those were good, so I don't see any reason on changing them. my immediate concern is really with getting ready for the half-marathon which is in a week and a half (the 14th). I procrastinate waaayy too much and it's creeping up on me. so we'll see what happens. I am confident that I can finish it, I just don't know how painful or difficult it is going to be to do it. I think I will be able to feel good if it's easier than it was last time (both in terms of during the race and recovering afterward), which was about four and a half years ago.

the perfect christmas gift

oh, if only I had received this for Christmas instead... (hehe)

btw, I'm back in Phoenix and already back to work. *sigh* lots to do. big big meeting on the 10th that we need to prepare for. also, training for the half-marathon which is in two weeks (yikes!). oh, and I need to work on my thesis. right.

nerdy math crafts

hehe. wow this is super nerdy. I love it. I want to knit a hyperbolic plane!

merry christmas!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday. mine was surprisingly pleasant and pain-free. which is good. I got a bunch of books (one Vonnegut and some others on physics), some music, some jewelry, an audio recording device (for the interviews and other stuff I will have to do for my dissertation research), and lots of gift cards. oh, and an iPod shuffle (which is awesome - thanks Jody!). I also had lots of good food and spent some quality time with the family. the one down-side was the weather: it was quite warm - like almost 80. another typical southern california christmas and kind of hilarious when I think of other parts of the country that are snowed in. while it is nice, it also makes it hard to believe that it's winter.

something to think about

I ran across this interesting article yesterday from marketwatch.com about the wealth gap in the world. I think especially at this time of year when we're seemingly ready to just buy buy buy whatever we feel we "need", it puts up a bit of perspective at just lucky we are to be where we are.

some Christmas spirit

(and an excuse to procrastinate a little bit instead of writing a paper.)
I am starting to get into the Christmas spirit. the semester is winding down (I am currently working on my final paper for one class) and everyone is starting to talk about plans for the break. Hwi and I put up some Christmas lights in our apartment the other day, I watched Miracle on 34th street last night (the second half in color and then the first half in black and white), and I keep getting phone calls and emails asking what I want for Christmas (for the record, peace on earth and good will towards ALL people would be nice). also, today's New York Times had an article about the house that was featured in one of my favorite Christmas movies, A Christmas Story. also, for another laugh, check this parody out.

almost there...

so it's December already. how did that happen? and why did it take so long? anyway, I have about a week or so left of the semester (my one and only paper is due on Wednesday, but I have other stuff to do until probably the 15th). I am really looking forward to getting some work done on my thesis over the break. I have a presentation to do the week before classes begin again and then there's a big conference in San Diego that I'm going to towards the end of February. so that will be good. I have a lot of work still to do, but I am making tons of progress and it is going really well I think.

Thanksgiving was pretty nice last week. I drove to LA to see the fam. the driving part was not exactly the most painless it has been (going there, I ran into a ridiculous amount of traffic once I hit LA - of course). but it was good to see everybody and dinner was great. I came back just in time to go out for Lynn's birthday last week.

in other news, I really like this "new" Beatles cd, LOVE. it is from the Cirque du Soleil show and although I was hesitant at first, I am really digging it. it is a new and interesting take on some of my favorite songs. they mostly fooled around with transitions between songs and didn't screw with the actual songs too much in most cases, which I think was wise.