Thursday and Friday, some of the brightest minds in the world converged on Stony Brook in honor of the new Simons Center, and to honor the achievements of C.N. Yang and Jim Simons. Among the speakers were Yang and Simons themselves, Ed Witten, Juan Maldecena, Cumrun Vafa, John Morgan, Shing-Tung Yau, and others. Read more »

Posted: March 29th, 2008 under Mathematics, Physics.
Comments: 1

    Well, it’s happened again. Another advisor has taken me on and then found that he didn’t have the money to support me. Tom was very up front and apologetic about it, and I know it’s not his fault that his grant wasn’t approved, but it doesn’t make my life any less frustrating. Now I have a relatively short amount of time to find a new advisor, this time pretty far removed from my initial interests, or else *gasp* enter the real world.

In preparation for what now seems inevitable, I consulted with my good friend Gavin and put together my first actual resume geared towards someone who doesn’t have a Ph.D. to read. Surprisingly, I was able to get it up to two pages with my big emphasis on teaching, and there was a certain cool feeling about writing “Distinguished Professor” for two references followed by two successful business people.

All of this has made me feel very introspective about what amounts to my lifelong dream of going into academia to teach and study physics. Watching Tom struggle to get grant money to fund me made me realize that taking on graduate students is a lot more work, struggle and failure than I initially thought it would be, and since getting money is 99% of being a professor, I just don’t think I could handle it. Then I thought of Aikido, and how much I enjoy studying it and teaching it (as well as I can), and realized that the void that physics will leave if I leave it will quickly be filled by Aikido. I plan to stay on Long Island for at least another year to get to Shodan, possibly Nidan, before I leave for warmer climes, and spread Aikido to others.

Basically, I want to teach and learn something that I will always find new nuances to, and as long as I’m always improving myself I think I will be happy, whatever it is that pays the bills.

Posted: March 25th, 2008 under Personal.
Comments: none

    This Saturday, I head back to Georgia for a little break from reality before I come back and attack research and Grad Lab and grading, Oh My! So here’s what the agenda is for this week and Georgia, and people in Georgia take note that I’m coming through. Read more »

Posted: March 10th, 2008 under Personal.
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    Normally I don’t blog about personal stuff, but I might as well since people might actually find that more interesting than school shootings that weren’t (police have found conflicting reports about the whole “gun” thing…), so here goes.

Today was a pretty good day. I bought new Doc Martens (no picture available due to weird ass lighting conditions in my kitchen) in my continuing effort to look less like a grad student and more like a normal person. I have to start filling out the wardrobe for spring, which is going to be challenging since I don’t have much of a base. I think it’ll be worth it, though. People tend to react to you very differently when you don’t look like you shopped for the cheapest thing you could find, and it’s kinda nice actually.

I also learned the ins and outs of chi-square analysis, just in case I actually need it for grad lab. Given how godawful my data is for the Hubble constant, I’m a little frustrated to find that using HII regions would have been much better than the galactic nucleus size, and might have yielded much better results.

But first, however, I worked on my car with the help of my friend Matt. The EGR valve was giving me lip, so we replaced it. I could instantly feel the car accelerating better, and with the next tank of petrol I’ll get to see if it really changes the gas mileage that much. Regardless of the outcome, the part cost $140 to replace and it took thirty minutes; a garage would have started me at around $300 for the parts and labor, which is absurd.

To finish the day, I put together baked tilapia and a side of white rice. I had baked tilapia and rice last week for lunch, but I used olive oil as a base for the baking, which was a bad idea. Also, microwaving rice turned out to be quite a chore. This time was different, though.

The fish got a little fresh ground sea salt and pepper, and some thin slices of lemon left on it during the baking. The remaining half of the lemon was squeezed out onto the fish, and I popped it into the oven for thirty minutes. What came out was delicious. The lemon slices did exactly what they were designed to do, the pepper and salt were just right, it was wonderful. I’m really getting impressed with my ability to slap together solid meals one night after the other, and the amount of money I’m saving is astronomical. The fish tonight cost roughly $2.50, the rice probably a few cents, the lemon was say a dollar, and then the amount of salt and pepper used amounts to maybe a few cents, again. That’s roughly $4 for a very good dinner. This same meal would have cost at least $10 at a restaurant, and it was still cheaper than eating at Wendy’s.

I’m getting to where I don’t understand why people don’t cook for themselves whenever they can. It is amazing how cheap everything is if you cook it all yourself. If I figure I’m spending $8 per day on food that I cook myself (this is being generous on cost), contrast with spending $13 and frequently going over for restaurant food bought on a budget, I’m saving roughly $150 per month (this probably is closer to $100, but still…) that’s a sizable chunk of change right there.

Posted: March 2nd, 2008 under Personal.
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