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Oct. 4th, 2009 @ 12:09 pm
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After a fun midweek with laura, I ended up working from 7am to 8:30 pm on friday. Bahh! I'm a sheep. So, today, its electricity and magnetism homework. I hope i remembered how to do vector calculus. Sometimes, grad school feels really hard, but other times, like when I spend the day doing nothing (yesterday, I watched deep space 9 essentially all day) I feel like maybe I can handle things. The refrain I keep coming back to is "Hey, I'm supporting myself by being a student, how cool is that!?". Its hard to argue. But, at the same time, I still wish that I could pause school and go be really creative, like build a house, or learn to paint or something like that. Or, to take my braces off and play trumpet. After this year, I'll have much much more control over how to spend my time, I just have to get through it. I'm a little nervous about the comprehensive exam this spring. There are three ways to take the test. One way is to pass at the PhD level, which means that I become a doctoral candidate and then start work on research, a dissertation, and get ready for the oral exams. The oral exams are when I give a talk on my research for an hour, and then take questions from faculty members for two hours.
The second way to go is to pass the test at the master's level. This means that I'm not eligible for a doctorate, but I can still get a masters. I can attempt the test again, the following january, and if I pass at the PhD level, then I go back to the PhD track. Otherwise, if you fail the second time (or pass at the master's level again) then you're stuck getting a master's, you do a master's thesis and do a less intense version of the oral exam. For the half of the students in my classes who already have a masters' degree, they're out of luck, they have to drop out, since you can't get a second master's in the same program. (Or, they can revamp their degree and do something in the math, biology, or chemistry department).
Finally, the last way to do it is to fail the first time, and then try and pass the second time. If you fail twice, you're out!
75% of all students pass at the doctoral level, given 1 or 2 tries. Some years its 80%. However, Nearly 99% of students pass the oral exams, so that's at least a boon.
Hopefully, everything goes well! |
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Sep. 24th, 2009 @ 09:47 pm
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First step towards phd in physics happens tomorrow: my first day of classes. On the griddle this quarter:
1. Classical Mechanics
2. Quantum Mechanics
3. Electrodynamics
4. Mathematical Tools for Physics
5. Research Topics at UCR seminar
6. Colloquium in Physics
7. Teaching Lab for physics students taking electricity and magnetism
Good luck to everyone else starting school! |
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Sep. 15th, 2009 @ 03:14 pm
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Aug. 28th, 2009 @ 10:26 am
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Welp, I'm moving to california to start work in grad school in about four days. IIIIEEEEEE! What the hell? When did I move out of bellingham? Oh thats right, months ago. So weird how periods of my life come and go. Its sad and exciting at the same time. I probably won't see folks from bellingham for a long long time. |
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Okay, I had no idea people actually did this sort of thing. But, here it is: one of the most disturbing/warped kind of crimes I think there are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_abductions_in_the_United_States |
| » Ode to my maxilla |
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Oh sweet maxilla, I split you in two
And now you're all angry, black and blue
You filled my sinuses with blood and ooze a plenty
And I've quaffed gatoraide, smoothies so gently.
Oh maxilla, I hope you forgive me,
For rending you in two,
You see its just because my jaws don't meet
But now they rather do.
Oh, gorey surgery, what an experience you were,
With me on my back, being hacked like a dead sack,
A chisel on my tregus, and in the mist of my mouth,
A happy new passage from nasal cavaty to oral cavity--
I hope you close soon!
Jun. 25th, 2009 @ 10:58 am
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| » (No Subject) |
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Two words: shoe laces.
(I had to edit after a started with "one word"....)
May. 5th, 2009 @ 07:19 am
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| » thought for the moment |
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I was thinking this morning about the world, how people work, why I work the way I do. I do this often. Today, my thought was that people are not taught to disagree early enough. When couples fight, they're having a "disagreement". They say the word with some sort of disgust, like its dirty.
We're taught from a young age to just accept things, ideas, ways of life because someone in authority says so. I say "Screw authority!" Make up your own god damn mind! If doctors tell you you're sick in a certain way, but you know its another way, then screw 'em!
A little over-dramatic. But I was thinking, I've often given others so much leeway and trust and blind obidiance because I thought they were cool, or I really respected the position they held in society. But those people I respect are just as prone to errors and misjudgements as I am--when its all averaged out.
Feynmann said, in effect, that in order to discover new things about ourselves, and new things about the world, you have to assume that people that are 'experts' are ultimately wrong; we ourselves may also be ultimately wrong.
I think its all about trusting your own judgement, and allowing yourself room to fuck up as well as allowing yourself to think that you're more on top of something than someone else. Especially, its important to invite disagreement, rather than avoid it.
Apr. 13th, 2009 @ 05:20 pm
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| » I'm afraid of viruses and parasites |
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I've never thought of myself as having defined fears. I think I've just realized that I do have a fear of viruses. Think about it: these lifeless molecules take over your body at the cellular level, and turn your cells into factories for more viruses! Then your cells explode! That's some scary shit!
Feb. 18th, 2009 @ 11:09 am
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| » REJECTED! |
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U of O rejected my application for admission. They suck. I hate them now. That's okay, UCR has romanced me far more than U of O would have.
Feb. 15th, 2009 @ 12:33 pm
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| » Thoughts about the world today |
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I realized the reason that some religious people hate science, and why some scientists hate religious people. To me, the two fields have mostly always been non-overlapping magisteria when boiled down to thier core axioms. The reason is a mutual, deliberate oversimplification of eachother in order to fit in, and feel comfortable with ones' self.
For me, and many other scientists, doing science provides a very deep sense a fufillment, very much like the sort of fufillment that others gain from religion. I find science fufilling because it provides a framework to look at the world and make the best judgement you can with information at hand. It is a study that does not pick favorites, and often, tests your very core convinctions and ability to think clearly, constructively, and fairly.
Many scientists make science into something boardering supernatural, something that begins to resemble a mult-faceted omnipotent god. That is when they start to clash with religious people.
I wonder, who's fault it is that there is so much friction between science and religion. There really shouldn't be. Scientists that try and use their knowledge to disprove god(s) are forever doomed to fail. The most we can ever do is simply say that we haven't had a reason to invoke the god hypotheses to explain something. Its not a refutal. Its simply a statment that implies that a scientist must restrict his work to the quantifiable material world.
So, why should religious people feel threatened at all by scientists? Many don't because they know that the role of science is not to attack their personal philosophies.
Furthermore, not all scientists fully define who they are by the science they practice. Yet often, we are placed into that box. "Oh, you're a scientist, so you must think xyz". Or, 'a scientist? Aren't you an atheist? Don't you hate all those crazy evangelical christians?". Nobody ever walks up and asks you these questions, but there is a clear undercurrent among young science students along these veins, and certainly an undercurrent of that in our society.
Young people (I am a young person) are in a continual search for self-identitity. As for myself, one of my faults is that I will often jump on a new set of ideals, beliefs, whatever, in an attempt to fit into a group, or to make myself look cool, or feel like I am accepted. I have tried to get away from this, but I can still see that it happens. I have fallen into a rabid, ideological belief system loosely based on science in the past, because it was an easy oppertunity for me to define myself with simple absolutes. Its more comfortable to simply the world around you, people, relationships, all of it.
Ultimately for most of us, we have to pick what elements of the world we will boil down and oversimplify, and which elements we will look at in detail.
Feb. 7th, 2009 @ 02:33 pm
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| » My New Computer |
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Finally, I replaced my old computer. It had an eight year old mother-board/pentium 4 processor. 1.4 GhZ. Upgraded graphics card. Ancient 55 Gbyte maxtor HDD (IDE). For the last four years, the hard drive has been blue-screening at the end of every power-down.
I built a new computer. Its a really beautiful sight. You know that you have a good computer when you try and run the windows audio recorder, but it won't stream audio back because you have too much RAM and the program itself was built for a shitty computer. I found that tidbit to be funny. Apparantly, windows' sound recorder only works with less than 2 gbyts of RAM. I have four Gigabytes of DDR2 1060 Mhz ram. Its really god damn nice.
On top of that, I got an ASUS 9800GT 512 mb DDR3 PCIe graphics card, Dual core 3.2 GHZ AMD Athelon 6000+ processor, GIGABYTE motherboard with intergrated HD 7.1 channel audio, 500 Gbyte Seagate SATA HDD, DVD Reader/burner (20x), and 4 gigs of aforementioned DDR2 Corsair memory. I got a great case for cheap, and a nice 400W, dual 12 V rail power supply. Ahhh the nerd-dom. Best part: after rebates, the system cost me $475.00, and came with CoD World at War (excellent, beautiful first person shooter game).
Google earth now zooms/renders at lightning speeds. I can run a multitude of installs/programs/games all at once.
Maxed out settings on games.
Bad Ass.
Feb. 7th, 2009 @ 03:51 am
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| » (No Subject) |
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I noticed a new trend in the viral internet today. Just because, I clicked on a link on a banner advertisement, telling me that I could earn a living playing video games! Wow! What a life! Anyway, knowing that it is impossible to do this, I clicked on the link to see what it had to offer.
It was an site for online video game design colleges. The new viral trend is that the page will not let you navigate away, or close the tab. It will pop up several dialog boxes that ask you to reconsider leaving the site, and then pop a second box up that gives you a choice to leave or go. Simultaneously to that, an online bot (pretending to be a person) pops up in a chat box. What follows is my conversation with "Terry" an attractive blond woman.
I attempted to be offensive and/or mean to test if it was actually a person or not. Then, I just went off. All of it is a joke, and if you are offended with my insults to terry, well, tough.
( The Conversation )
Jan. 24th, 2009 @ 06:24 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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I heard back from my first grad-school, University of California at Riverside. After calling me up and interviewing me, they offered me admission the next day. They're going to fly me down there, put me in a hotel, and pay for all my meals for the first weekend of march. Talk about romancing the students! They also told me to make a list of faculty I want to meet and discuss research with. How cool!!!
I'm officially a PhD student in physics. How wild is that?
Jan. 22nd, 2009 @ 12:27 pm
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| » FUCKING DOOOONE! |
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I've finally finished my graduate school applications. In remembrance, I thought I'd post my statements of purpose. I think its interesting to watch how it evolved through each application. I applied (in chronological order) to UC Berkeley, University of Oregon at Eugene, UC Riverside, University of Colorado at Boulder, and UC Davis. Hopefully, I'll get into one of 'em!
( The Evolution of the Statement of Purpose )
Jan. 14th, 2009 @ 11:02 pm
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| » Weird Morning |
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So, this morning, I was sitting on the 14 bus on the way to school. This guy starts shouting that "He's got his hand in his pants, what the hell, get him off the bus!!". He was really agitated. There was another guy across the aisle who had tremors and appeared to have his eyes closed. I think he also had a developmental disability. In any case, the accussor is making a big scene, the bus driver pulled over at the next stop and passed out these forms to people asking "Did you witness it!?".
I don't think the guy with tremors was actually doing anything. At worst, I bet he was just scratching himself or something. But the other guy was a real dick, he was shouting and yelling about it. It could have looked like anything--when you have tremors, you just kind of shake uncontrollably. I felt bad for the guy.
Weird, huh?
Jan. 8th, 2009 @ 03:48 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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If we cut off the supply of solar energy via blackening the skies (as done in the Matrix), there would not be an unlimited supply of energy. Humans ultimately get all of our energy from the sun, through a long chain of chemical reactions, beginning with plants.
So, they say the remains of the dead are liquefied and fed to the dead? Yes, but the total living population would always depend on previous populations; once you remove the primary energy source, the sun, the total amount of human-energy would dwindle, as no new energy would be added to the system.
Since I think we can assume that the machines are not 100% efficient, this means that they're energy resources will dwindle to zero. (Morpheus does say that they combine human-power with a form of fusion...dang, I guess I might be on to nothing.)
Dec. 15th, 2008 @ 01:38 am
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| » What weird stuff have you cut yourself on? |
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So, I cut my finger last night, and it got me thinking: why is it that I work with sharp knives all the time in my kitchen, yet never cut myself with them? I worked in a commercial kitchen for 4 months, where I chopped hundreds of pounds of vegetables and meat. Yet, I did not cut myself with a knife, not even once. I did cut myself on the rim of a bucket, though.
The list of weird things that I have cut myself with:
-Last night: dried, hardened cheese
-The shrink wrap plastic from a flat of soda
-The rim of a bucket
-The chain of a shattered toilet
It seems as though my hands are impervious to knives, but other stuff, no way, I'll get cut every time.
Dec. 12th, 2008 @ 09:54 am
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| » (No Subject) |
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Let me start with a caveat--I think it is good that the news gets involved when people go missing--regardless of the kind of coverage, I think it does help those select people get found. However, I wish the news was less selective in what cases they cover, and more importantly, I wish that they did not have to tell an elaborate fairy tale building up the exciting conditions around how a person went missing. Isn't it weird how as a collective, people can get really worked up about a few isolated events that are chosen to be escalated to epic proportions? Like, Jean Bennet Ramses, for example. I think child murder is very bad, but don't you think that in some way, the media sort of pimps out these kind of stories? Is there some semblance of personal responsibility, or greater responsibility for the rest of us, that might compel the news to give equal coverage to all of us in our time of need?
The unfortunate truth is that if we were all guaranteed national media intervention when we lost something, were in trouble, or were kidnapped, there wouldn't be room for other news. I'm glad its not the media that decides which cases get attention by the police and which don't. Otherwise, only beautiful and exciting, charismatic would get help.
A recent example is the mass media coverage of Laura Garza, who was recently kidnapped. Predictably, she is beautiful, young, and a frequenter of the best night clubs in new york--a member of the new generation of the bourgeoisie. This is by no means a criticism of her character, and I do sincerely hope that she will be found.
I just wonder what would happen if I were kidnapped--could I make headlines? Could you? "Bellingham College Student Kidnapped, Authorities: No Leads". That would be the headline. In maybe the Spokesman Review and Bellingham Herald. Her headline? "Brooklyn Beauty Snatched from Marquee Nightclub, Helicopter Search Underway" -- top story of google news, top story in a multitude of national newspapers.
Dec. 7th, 2008 @ 01:14 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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University of California at Riverside recently asked me to apply to their PhD Physics program. While riverside is not them most thrilling city ever, it was really nice to be approached about grad school. They offered to waive my application fee, and were impressed with my research credentials.
Yaaaay! I'm wanted!
This month, I'll have to wrap up my decisions for where I want to go to Grad School. So far:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne
University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Oregon, Eugene
University of Arizona, Tuscon
University of California: Berkeley, San Diego, Santa Barbra, Riverside, etc
University of Washington
Washington State University
Eh, I haven't found somewhere that is really drawing me, but it was the same for undergraduate school. I think I just need to apply to a few places, and transfer if neccessary.
Nov. 19th, 2008 @ 11:00 am
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