Mein Blog

Math vs. Applied Math

2008-10-03T00:26:00.001-07:00

If math is mental masturbation, then what is applied math?
-apk

...

2008-04-30T17:16:00.001-07:00

My cat was grooming my bathrobe. Odd.

'Oars!

2008-04-26T17:24:00.001-07:00

"Most people travel east to west via water taxi. That is, the london oarsmens and their barges. If we walk down to the river we hear their cries of, 'Oars oars!' If we're young ladies up from the country we may think that we've just been insulted."

-Robert Bucholz in History of England From the Tutors to the Stuarts (lecture 26)

Hotels in the US are shoeless

2008-04-10T02:44:00.001-07:00

I'm in Salisbury, Maryland right now in the Hampton. Caltech (SFP (Student Faculty Programs,) specifically) sent me here because I talk real good about my research, and there's a conference called 'NCUR' happening here. I don't know what 'NCUR' stands for, nor exactly when I'm presenting, but I have to admit that I'm disappointed so far. There are no slippers in the hotel -- one major difference and something I really miss from Chinese hotels! The conference should really get its act together and make sure the nearby hotels give out slippers. To quote Vera, grrr.....

Good kitty...

2008-01-30T15:41:00.000-08:00

I got a small avian present from my kitty today... good kitty... I swept my room, though, so it's absurdly clean in my room.

I have to sadly admit that I threw her gift away...

=p

Term project suggestion for Planetary Formation class

2008-01-24T22:36:00.000-08:00

Life at High Pressure: The conventional wisdom is that life (as we know it) cannot
survive at very high pressure because the proteins can’t fold the same way, etc, etc.
Assess the fundamental limits on life inside planets. Check out Hazen RM, Boctor N,
Brandes JA, et al. High pressure and the origin of life
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-CONDENSED MATTER 14 (44): 11489-11494 NOV 11
2002. Also check out Jules Verne.

Cool Time Wasting Non-Interactive Sites

2007-12-29T08:06:00.000-08:00

http://badgerbadgerbadger.com/
http://www.stanford.edu/~scodary/tkam.htm
http://www.ultimateshowdown.org/

Good Travel Sites

2007-12-28T07:54:00.001-08:00

I've found a few sites online that are especially nice for searching for travel related stuff.

Flights: kayak.com
Hotels: agoda.com
CouchSurfing: couchsurfing.com

The first searches ~100 sites and allows you to sort via price, schedule, airline, etc.. Interface is fairly easy to use. Very nice features (such as previous searches available with a single click) and the site as a whole isbig time-saver compared to using expedia, travelocity, etc.. It searches those sites, too, by the way.

Agoda searches for hotels and other high-class accomodations. At least for Hong Kong, it gave me much better rates than most of the other sites I found. It doesn't list the $20/night youth hostel-style places, but there are other sites that seem to address that market.

I owe my knowledge of CouchSurfing.com to Speek. They're a site built completely to encourage exchange of crash space for travelers who aren't too picky about their accommodations and can do some very basic planning ahead*. Speek has had good experience with this throughout Europe, but I have yet to try it myself.

* A summary of my understanding. Their actual mission is:

"What is the CouchSurfing mission?

When we incorporated CouchSurfing International, Inc. as a non-profit, we filed our official mission statement as:

"CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding."

As a community we strive to do our individual and collective parts to make the world a better place, and we believe that the surfing of couches is a means to accomplish this goal. CouchSurfing isn't about the furniture- it's not just about finding free accommodations around the world- it's about participating in creating a better world. We strive to make a better world by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world! "

- http://www.couchsurfing.com/help.html, Accessed 4 minutes before this post.

Boink!

2007-09-23T04:26:00.000-07:00

I have a cricket in my room.

*blink*

I guess that's what I get for writing books and doing research. Or something.

Surprise! (2)

2007-09-21T01:39:00.000-07:00

Expecting warm thai food in my mouth and instead being singed in the face by a hot cloud of water vapor. Stupid microwave... warming up my food...

I should go to bed.

-apk

Surprise!

2007-09-21T01:34:00.000-07:00

I got a horridly baffling surprise today when I gulped down glass of what I thought would be orange juice and discovered it was soy milk. That's kind of like a slap in the face with a liter of two-thirds solidified jello.

Weird experience.

Good Kitty...

2007-09-17T03:28:00.000-07:00

Vera's cats are finally gone from my room and Rosalind has full reign again. She's so happy about this that she's been sleeping on the bed, hopping into my lap, licking me and, of course, bringing me presents.

In the last 24 hours, she's brought me a dead, bleeding bird and a live rat. The rat and Rosalind hide under my bed as I write this. Right now she wants to teach me how to hunt the rat with her, but I'm too exhausted and sick to play that game.

Rosalind is now sitting right by my chair looking smug. So the question I have to ask now is: "Where is the rat?"

...

Good kitty...

...

-apk

Bad Ideas

2007-07-22T21:14:00.001-07:00

It's too damn hot in my room. I get dehydrated (or something) fairly easily, so I've been sleeping about 16 or so hours per day. While there may be other factors involved, I think the water issue is key. There are two obvious solutions to me:

1. Drink more water
2. Cool my room

I've been trying (1.) by itself for some time now with little or no effect. it helps to drink water, but I can't seem to do it regularly enough to take care of the problem. Plus I end up sweating more than I'd like.

I don't have an air conditioner, so (2.) is difficult. But I have a bad idea I want to try.

\begin{enumerate}
\item Waterproof container with large surface area. Place under bed in big open area.
\item Big fan.
\item Water.
\item Mix.
\end{enumerate}

The Bad Idea begins...

Blisters

2007-07-22T03:06:00.000-07:00

I went to Rocky Horror Picture Show tonight. Now I have blisters on my feet from walking all the way from MIT to harvard square because some genius who was organizing (or not) the trip decided to take the bus -- the buses have the right to refuse service, and that they did. The show was decent. I noticed a few things:

1. There are twin mona lisas in the background during a few scenes in RHPS.
2. Frank probably comes from Frankenstein -- a reference I never before realized.
3. Rickoids often are chosen to be the bride when we attend.

No one died on the way back, so everything turned out alright in the end.

Chris: the book I'm working on is The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pre-Algebra. Quite fun. =)

=p

2007-07-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

Right. At MIT for RSI. Plaque almost done. Lots of documentation of RSI locker to do. Book to write.

=p

-apk

Inspiration

2007-06-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

I sat in a car with two of my students today, both of them being quite tired from the end of "dead week" + a few finals/papers. We drove through the forest near Tenant Lake on the slow, meandering road. Despite the near impossibility of the idea, we bantered over whether or not we should drive to the Olympic Peninsula -- a 6-8 hour drive from Whatcom County. Although spending a few hours in the middle of the night there would be titillating, we figured it probably wasn't worth the time, money, or angry parental units. Scratch that. As we enter the Park'n Ride near Western, I proposed going to Western and having fun with math! They sighed they would like to, but they needed some "inspiration" to gather the energy to actually do anything more today. I must admit the tool I imagined to capture their interest and lure them to Bond Hand was cruel and unusual. I used it nonetheless.

"We could go and look through your course catalogs! That would be tons of fun, and it's probably a good thing to do before you get to College."

Laura bounced with excitement, Amy let out a frustrated sigh. I tried to convince her of the Joy of Courses, but Amy cut me off, "it's just sad that I agree with you..."

Laura asked her mom, who reluctantly agreed, dropping a subtle hint that Laura should be at normal parties, not hanging around a college doing something useful on a Friday Night. Nothing like protective parents to ruin good times for seniors in high school...

Sleeping

2007-05-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

Note to self:

Don't fall asleep in California in places where the sun will attack in the morning. You will get sunburned on half your face.

Worst Pickup Line Ever:

2007-05-08T09:42:00.001-07:00

Want to get into a chrysalis with me and metaphorose until we reach our adult stage?

Halley

2007-05-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

Halley Lisuk
that away message makes me nervous....

apk (Autoreply)
Phase 1. Steal Underpants.
Phase 2.
Phase 3. Profit!

hcomet2061 (Halley Lisuk
what are you up to?

apk
No Good.

Twenty Hours Later

2007-05-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

My, that was a good sleep!

My only thoughts that I can remember were of chemistry. Chemistry... chemistry... it has been three years now since I've actually taken a chemistry class (lab not included), which is far, far too long. I don't know whether I'll take P-Chem (thanks, Sierra) when I return to Caltech this fall or wait until 08-09. Hell, at this point, I could take introductory chemistry for the ease of the class. THAT would be a huge waste of time, I think. Though... what else am I going to do with my time? I suppose P-Chem would be a wonderful treat in terms of mental exercise, but I don't know if I want it so soon. My hope will be that by the end of the summer I will know what I want/need, and I will be able to enjoy it in the fall. That is months away, and I must first make my way through the intervening time. Analysis, Topology, Statistics, Physics, Geology, Econ... all soon, hopefully all fun.

If I don't enjoy myself when I return to Caltech, I don't know what I shall do. I have too many classes to take to graduate next year because of core/hum/soc. sci, not close enough to the math major, too far from the geophysics major OR M.S., and to get the latter I need the math major. So I sit, pondering what I shall do. Chemistry still lingers on the edge of my mind as I return to work...

Calvin and Hobbes

2007-04-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

It has been far, far too many years since I last spent any serious time reading Calvin and Hobbes. Perhaps... 7-9 years ago when my dad stopped taking me and my brother camping as often. On those trips we would load up the metallic blue 92' Carola with tents, cooking supplies, board games, lawn (or rather, forest) chairs, and a bundle of other necessities. Among these was my dad's collection of Calvin and Hobbes, a smattering of treasuries and original book releases that covered almost all theology and philosophy Bill Watterson produced.

I remember one time I was particularly unsatisfied with colorlessness of the strip where Calvin accidentally backs the car into a ditch. Using the nearby color comics as a guide, I colored the car red, Calvin's hair yellow, Hobbes's alternative stripes Orange... I think I did a fine job, though I think my brother had contempt for my efforts. Maybe it was the attempt, maybe it was my inability to stay within the lines, maybe it was brotherly love.

I tend to assume the latterest.

Dumplings

2007-04-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

Steamed dumplings are yummy! And obscenely easy to prepare if I buy them fresh-made or frozen.

I really don't understand food prices here... many fruits and vegetables are as expensive (or more so) than meat. And dumplings are something like $1.66/pound. While that doesn't compare to the Bananas at $0.40/pound, they are much more delectable. Each meal eating out at the student cafeteria is about $3.00 for a meal + drink, and that's fairly affordable; 3 meals a day means I'd spend $63/week on food, substantially better than Caltech's board program with a larger variety of foods from 7:30am - 9pm. My will to cook for myself is weak here, but I think it will return when I get back to Caltech in the summer...

=/

2007-04-28T08:18:00.000-07:00

I don't feel like posting tonight, but I might as well rant.

I dislike Tufts University because it doesn't have a cohesive document that lists the graduation requirements for all of the majors and all of the programs. Or at least I wasn't able to find it online. Grr... where are COMETS when you need them... problem solved nonetheless via an absurd system of piece together evidence from various sites to come to a non-rigorous conclusion. Somewhat unsatisfying, but it's not better than the way we practice science and engineering.

Athena, my darling, is taking another trip to Ohio State... I still don't understand why she likes it there, but she does. That's reason enough for me, though I'm still curious.

I need some water and food...

Ta-ta for now!

Water

2007-04-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

The humidity here is incredibly wet. I have the air conditioner on "low" all day. I can hardly ever actually see out my window because of the condensation. Or the lack of light since it's night. But the water I pay most attention to is in my two glass water bottles.

Snapple bottles leak when you refill it with water. Or so I thought. When I put hot water into it (~80C), the Snapple bottle not only doesn't leak but has a slight vacuum seal. I thought about this for a while, probably too long, and realized that the quantity of air in the bottle is inversely proportional to temperature. When I put hot water in, there is little air; then I put in cold water, there is much air. As time goes on, the air in the bottle equilibrates with the temperature of the room. If there was too much air, there would be positive pressure, air (and water) leaking out easily. If there was too little, there would be negative pressure, a vacuum seal preventing any leaking.

Good ol' PV = nRT

=p

Fixing Linux

2007-04-26T02:03:00.000-07:00

I watched a hamster install the Linux SuSe on her Lenovo IBM ThinkPad. It worked, she downloaded a few programs to her computer, and within 24 hours of setting it up, Linux died. Few days ago the 3D acceleration was turned off, which made everything painfully slow... and a reinstall was (erroneously) in order. Now for various tests, repair the SuSe system

I have no idea why this is happening... maybe the programmers put some code in to check whether a user is in China/if the other OS(s) use(s) Chinese, and if so they make it crash more often. One hit against the Chinese theory is that XP is not the Chinese/Hong Kongese/Taiwanese version. Another is that this would be a hard conspiracy to conceal since SuSe is open source.

So now I'm here sitting by the computer, waiting for the tests to be completed, hoping that another reinstall is not in order. =p

Warcraft III

2007-04-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

I seem to be doing quite badly in Warcraft III... I can't seem to beat more than one "insane" computer at a time. Though I do decently enough in FFAs, I rarely win. This is a rewarding challenge, especially because I find out all kinds of useful new things about each race, and it gives me a distraction from work. Which I need. Still working too much, working too hard... just need to lie back and relax sometime....

I think I'll go to sleep soon. It's 2:45am, and I'm a bit sleepy.

Signing out,
-apk

Ayn Rand

2007-04-25T04:40:00.000-07:00

So, I had never really run into anyone quite as incompetent as someone in Atlas Shrugged, but today was great. I found a true James Taggart. Although I don't believe that the language used in it is quite accurate... it's more symbolic. And not symbolic in the way liberals enjoy wearing hats or carrying bags Japanese or Chinese characters on them. Rather, Rand was saying: "Don't let it get this bad, or we're screwed!" The message was of course more nuanced than that, but I now understand in a practical way what I had only appreciated intellectually before.

"We have to look at every aspect of the problem, and none of us can do it. We really want to solve this global problem but don't want to have to actually DO any work... talking should be sufficient for those like us."

=p

AHHHHHHHHHHH!

Rain Rain Go Away...

2007-04-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

Today we have a:

RED RAINSTORM SIGNAL

Heavy rain has fallen or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong, exceeding 50 millimetres in an hour, and is likely to continue.

ACTION

* Employees working outdoors in areas exposed to rain should suspend outdoor duties if weather conditions in those areas so warrant.
* People who have to travel should carefully consider weather and road conditions.
* If the RED signal is issued before working hours, employees should report for duty as usual, provided that transport services are available. Supervisors are encouraged to adopt a flexible attitude in case their staff have genuine difficulties in arriving at work on time.
* If the RED signal is issued during office hours, employees working indoors should remain on duty as usual unless it is dangerous to do so. Employees in areas where transport services are about to be suspended can be exceptionally released at the discretion of the supervisor. In exercising their discretion, supervisors should take into account the weather and road conditions.

In other words, it's really raining hard and all hell may or may not break loose. Also, for the first time since I was young thunder made me jump out of my seat. It was much louder than I was expecting, despite the flashes of lightening. On another note I have all of the lights in the room on so that I can see -- otherwise it's pretty damn dark. This is heavier than the WA rain to which I'm accustomed.

Luckily, I am safely and happily inside my room, with a view of the water, both the sea (vaguely) and rain (also vaguely, but for different reasons...)

I think I'm going to go and take a look at the rain outside in person... toodles!

Hugs, love,
apk

Languages and all that

2007-04-22T23:13:00.000-07:00

So. Right. Languages.

English - Mostly Fluent.
Spanish - fading, but still kicking.
German - Awful.
Japanese - Awful + 2 \epsilon.
Chinese - Bad.

I love them all, but I really don't know if I can give even one the time it deserves. So maybe I should be writing this in Spanish rather than English, simply to practice... but that seems like it somewhat defeats the purpose as most people I know don't speak Spanish, and mine is far from perfect. Hmmm... how can I get paid to learn languages... any ideas, anyone?

Finally Athena Said, "Yes!"

2007-04-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

=) =) =)

Well, that about settles it. She agreed to marry me, though we're going to have to talk to our families about when the marriage can be/should be. My family, of course, is pretty much completely open; my mom can take a few days off work, my dad can do the same without needing permission, my grandmother is unemployed (and unemployable) and my brother is smart enough to be able to take time off school at will. At least a few days. The rest of the family... not sure if they're interested in coming other than my Aunt Ruth.

HER family, on the other hand, actually have normal jobs. I think. It seems like it at least. I really should pay more attention to her family, especially as they'll soon be my family, too. In any case, my family will be fine as normal and hers will have a fit.

I realize I haven't told most of you about her... but that's kind of how I do things. I don't have any need to proclaim my relationship status to the world, especially over something like facebook. But this is getting serious, so I might as well get serious about it and tell everyone. HAHAHA... ok, I won't be that serious.

"Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue," sings Dean Martin. That about covers it. Except that she's actually 5'1" and her eyes are brown. (I think... if I'm wrong, I'm going to get hit. Again. (She already hit me once this post... I'm supposed to say she's 5'2".))

We met back in 2000 in New Hampshire at a store in the White Mountains after Andrew Merlina and I finished out History Day gig in D.C.. I noticed Athena buying the cutest stuffed raccoon in the world. (Maybe I thought it was cute because she was cute, but we're not going to go there... ducks from another whack.) Anyway, we talked briefly, I got her e-mail address (what's the use of a phone number?) and we went our separate ways. On random chance, I e-mailed her later than summer. (As most of you know, I almost never get around to e-mailing the random people I get e-mail addresses from...) We've been talking off and on ever since. Time and relationships flowed on, passed on, and recently we've been in intimate conversation for much of the day over Skype and/or AIM. We decided to try going steady and enjoyed it so much that we just decided, "Why not? Tie knot." If we're going to have kids, it might as well be in wedlock given our country as it is...

OK, it wasn't that simple. I proposed proposing propositioning her and got slapped. Not hard, but her words soon cleared up any misunderstanding between us, "I'm not a whore." Then I recalled that "propositioning" someone doesn't have the best connotations nowadays. The next day, after building up my courage (it didn't have to build up for long... I'm used to people abusing me for making light of serious situations, or saying "But I just met her!) I replaced "propositioning" with "to," and the response was much more position, "Like Hell you will!" and hit me lighter than before. Since I go to Caltech and she was a student at MIT, I figured that she enjoyed Hell, ergo I should propose. Apparently she didn't want me to apply my usual literalistic (or figurative) interpretation to twist her words to whatever I wanted them to mean. Whack. Like a good puppy, I took this as a form of attention, the best thing in the world! But until she actually said, "Yes!" I was not going to risk her fury... if she were to find out from our friends that she and I were engaged.

I clearly had to bring in bigger guns. How to gain enough leverage to get her to say, "Yes!" was the primary question on my mind. Problem solved: "Hey, Athena, do you like chocolate?" Celebration cut short. Rub hurt arm.

When I finally sighed with well-practiced spontaneity "I think I'll stop bathing for a while..." three days ago, she rolled her eyes and groaned. Yesterday, success at last! And it was as romantic as I could have wished:

"Fine. I'll marry you. Go take a shower -- you stink."

=) =) =)

^.^

Woot.

Though how she could smell me from so far away is beyond my limited comprehension...

I'll talk more about her later... it's time for me to celebrate again! Nothing like DDR with eight people on two pads... (the short people can't be in back.) Except maybe square dancing in a library.

Books I've read and want to read

2007-04-21T03:22:00.000-07:00

Just for the hell of it, I'm going to gradually be updating a list of books I've read. I need some way to keep track of what I have and haven't read that I can access form anywhere in the world, and this is a good solution since I don't have to log-in to read it.

Format is:

Author, Book Title (and edition, if important); Date Read:
Comments.

and I'll try to keep everything organize by author's family name.

Books I've read:

Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land; Apr. 21, 2007:
about "Mike," a human born and raised on Mars who returns to the Earth.

Harper Lee (?), To Kill a Mockingbird.

Jack London, Sea Wolf; ~3 times between 2005-2007.

JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit; Childhood (<12).
JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Rings; Childhood (<12).

Hmmm...

2007-04-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

I really shouldn't tell anyone anything about what I'm going to do for the summer (or in general) until I'm actually doing it or have paid for it (in the latter case, still somewhat dubious.) My plans always seem to change over time, even when they previously seemed firm. I guess that's normal, though.... at least for me, and I imagine for others...

-apk

I have sold myself for the summer...

2007-04-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I filled up my summer again. RSI Tech. Ass. and SURF. Luckily I have a 17 week summer. I wonder what I'll do with the extra week...

Without my sold soul,
-apk

Believing x and not x

2007-04-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

It's interesting... I believe that a great amount of gain can be gained by one who believes in religion, etc., regardless of the "truth" of the belief (whatever that means.) So it seems to me that a step on the way to religion (or a goal in and of itself) might be to realize the value of Belief and believe in those beliefs while "knowing" they are not true. That is, to hold the premises x and ~x at the same time in ones mind. I think a similar idea would be something like believing in the scientific model we know to be false. We believe in gravity as a force and Newtonian physics, but these are not strictly true in a universal sense. In the same way, perhaps one can believe in Religion or some brand thereof while knowing that it is not strictly true in a universal sense. But can I adopt religions as I adopt scientific models and discard them when the religion is not appropriate for the situation?

Chinese

2007-04-17T04:07:00.000-07:00

I'm finally doing what I came here (in part) to do: learn Chinese. I think I just spent 3-4 hours sitting, learning vocab and sentence structure. I don't think I have *too* much to show for it, but my elementary reading/listening skills are gradually improving. Though it is different than how I learned Spanish, I'm trying a tactic of trying to understand spoken and written Mandarin before I make a grand effort to speak it and write it. Part of this is due to the fact that I have little use for it here; more people in Hong Kong seem to speak English than Mandarin. The rest is mostly not wanting to have to transliterate all Chinese characters to Pinyin to be able to say them. We'll see how this goes. =D

Cheers to my friends,
apk

The view from my room

2007-04-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Can't see the Kelley for the Trees

2007-04-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong is much more beautiful than I imagined, or at least the 'new territories' are. The place I'm living is in the middle of a wooded area on the sea -- there happens to be a university nearby, but it doesn't ruin the majority of the forest because of the way it's built. At least, in my opinion.

The city itself is easy enough to get around in, but it lacks the natural beauty of, well, nature. The few parks that exist are nice, but you can always see a towering skyscraper somewhere on the horizon. The Peak, the closest thing they have to a mountain, is still fairly well forested. Nonetheless it made me realize what the island of Hong Kong must have once looked like.

As you can probably implicitly tell, I'm very much for living amongst the trees -- as long as my particular tree has clear water, space for kitties and something approaching MATLAB.

And of course a Kelley in her natural environment:

Money, Complaining

2007-04-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

Money. It's strange. I'm glad it exists, otherwise I'd be in general dire straites. But nonetheless I need to earn more than I'd like to in order to live how I want to. I can, of course, complain about this to no end... wasting time I could have spent on earning money OR living life. Does this imply, as one would suspect from going to Caltech, that complaining is life? No! It means complaining is time I spend earning money (at least via a blog with Google helping me be a content provider)!

Yangyang sprained her ankle today play badmitton. That was fun, except for the getting hurt part. I got to play Knight in Shining Armour for a little while, embarrassing her horribly in front of a number of her friends. Nothing like a good friend to help you blush, eh? And if making people blush is a measure of how good a friend one is, I must be a master.

MacBook

2007-04-14T12:30:00.001-07:00

My wonderful, though temperamental, tablet PC has finally been retired. The burning smell and melting plastic convinced me that it was time. This, of course, happened about a day before J-P asked me to write up everything I had finished up to this point. For some odd reason, Yangyang needs her computer for school work or something obscene like that, so I can't use her computer the entire time... the solution? Buy a Mac!

Macs don't melt to their powercord. Or need pieces of wood to reinforce the broken pieces of plastic.

I finished the 9 page report as quickly as I could, but it still took quite some time. This is only the theory part of the paper, and I know it's nowhere near complete; the formalisms and proofs currently are lacking, as they are mostly computational.

****

Where I am... Hong Kong. I'm here to relax and try to center myself... or at least get away from the extreme of stress and work that contributed so violently to my injured arms. A fraction of the irony is, of course, that I'm continuing my work here in order to support myself financially. This is a problem for two reasons:
1. I'm working on academic stuff, the same kind of stuff that led me to hurt my arms
2. I have to worry about money. I don't like worrying about money, and it's quite a strong stresser. (At least for me)

The giant benefit of being here, of course, is that I am quite removed from the culture of stress.
I also have far too many audiobooks to listen to... I love them so... they allow me to escape from my thoughts while I go for walks, do my laundry, play Capitalism II, pet my stuffed kitty Minerva... or thinking about life.

Ode

2007-04-14T11:54:00.001-07:00

I love Molly Peeoples.

=)

Unwaxing the floor

2007-03-16T04:20:00.001-07:00

with mickey mouse rulers...

to be continued...

Dragon NaturallySpeaking on the Mac

2006-11-27T19:13:00.000-08:00

I startup MacOS, I start a VNC server (Vine). I runa Windows virtual machine (Parallels), which has a VNC client (PuTTY + TightVNC) connected to my Mac.

=)

Oh Canada

2006-11-09T23:48:00.000-08:00

I hate it when Canada takes over states in New England...

Turtle

2006-11-07T14:35:00.000-08:00

I pet a lost, distressed turtle yesterday.

Professor Kositsky

2006-10-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

I'm going to give my students pop exams when I'm a professor.

=)

Rosalind, the Hunter

2006-10-21T03:32:00.000-07:00

Rosalind brought me another present tonight... a smaller mouse than usual, though. Ironically, I am becoming much, much better at catching mice. I guess she is succeeding with her quest to teach me how to hunt.

=p

-APK

Math...

2006-10-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

I used both the numbers pi/sqrt(6) and sqrt(6)/pi in my homework set today. I guess I need a new safe word...

LAN Gaming session

2006-10-14T02:13:00.000-07:00

I just realized I have all of the equipment and CDs to run starcraft or warcraft on 5 different computers at the same time... anyone want to have a lan game of some kind

Cali

2006-10-13T02:55:00.000-07:00

Cali died last night around 8pm. I'm really glad I went home when I did, even more than I was before. I can't sleep, so instead I work myself to distraction. Luckily, this isn't too hard to do. As of now I've taken almost everything out of my room, moved a new 2.5m desk in through the window (the door wasn't big enough) and installed windows on my computer, deleted windows from my computer, and now I'm reinstalling it on a larger partition of my harddrive. My body and mind hurt, but I still don't know how to deal with death. In a few hours I will probably be able to sleep.

Wednesday night Rosalind brought me a third rodent. I hope I can look forward to no presents tonight as I don't really feel like chasing the pair throughout the room with another poor, abused bowl. =P

Kitty....

2006-10-10T01:40:00.000-07:00

Another day, another rat. Then a cricket.

=/

Good kitty...

2006-10-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

Nothing like kitty bringing in a 6-in long rat with a much longer tail while I'm sorting papers... good Rosalind...

=p

-APK

Finished...

2006-08-24T03:10:00.000-07:00

I'm done reading people's online journals and facebook profiles... hopefully it will suffice for the Month Without The Internet!

Signing off...
APK

China, Japan, (home), Chile, South Pacific, New Zealand, Home, Back to New Zealand, Back Home

2006-08-24T02:59:00.000-07:00

those are/were my travel plans. I'll write about everything later when I have time to breath. =p

Love,
APK

A Good Day

2006-08-06T05:29:00.000-07:00

I spent the day on the couch in the Axline house (546 S. Catalina, Pasadena, CA) and was working off-and-on the whole time. Considering the number of people there and movies playing, I finished a lot of my work; the major part of the explaination behind my methods is fully written (being TeXed up by Jeff) and I finally got my code working correctly... my slip maps look like slip maps! They're fairly exagerated, but that was to be expected given my extrapolation procedure cerca 1935. Maybe I won't crop the data and see how it comes out.

Tomorrow I do everything else I need to before I go to China, and on Monday I run errands. Tuesday I leave.

Oddities

2006-08-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

There's nothing quite like seeing your 40 year-old mentor play "stairway to heaven" on the guitar. He does know how bad I am at singing, though...

Good kitties...

2006-06-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

Last morning I'm here:

Birds going crazy outside +
+ kitty going crazy inside with new toy +
+ Andy trying to sleep
= kitty got into the birds nest again and got an even smaller bird this time.

This time the little guy didn't survive. =/

Well, I know my kitty loves me and wants me to eat well. =p

I'm off to China now. Cheers to all! =)

-APK

For sooth...

2006-06-21T03:13:00.000-07:00

Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

...

Sometimes you just have to let go of the crap and enjoy life.

It could always be worse --
It could be raining.

Work nearly finished...

2006-06-20T01:42:00.000-07:00

for the week. Now I only have to do the ~25 things on my "to-do" list before heading off to the Middle of Nowhere, China.

=)

Yay!
-APK

Good kitty...

2006-06-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

I hear a gentle, light *chirp chirp* to me left. After the third ejaculation, I notice the source must be inside the room and not outside the window. Turning my head I see a baby bird hopping along my carpet with a pretty grey kitty staring at it intensely, batting it once. I make the cat desist from her diversion and sweep up the poor creature into a plastic bag.

My landlord said she could take care of it, so I'm back to work =p

Now Rosalind is complaining loudly and smelling around the room, searching for her catch. =) Good kitty.....

-APK

Finals

2006-06-07T07:31:00.000-07:00

Are over. Only 1 final project (geo) and then Geo research for the next 4.5 months.

This should be more fun than a barrel of monkies, there being many, many more monkies than just a barrel in Mudd (geo building) at Caltech...

A sleepy,
-APK

Cleaning, exercise!

2006-06-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

My room is now vacuumed for the first time in about 2 months, and it's incredible!

I started to exercise again, and it's quite seductive... I may even eventually get back in shape before too long. =)

Back to academic work and away from domicile work.

Cheers,
~APK

Good kitties...

2006-06-05T06:05:00.001-07:00

Today Sybil demanded that her name change to Spot, and Rosalind wanted her name shorten to Rose. Good, high-maintenance kitties...

=p
-APK

Chem 3b is finished!

2006-06-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

After working on the chem 3b lab report for about 27 hours (not continuously), I'm finally finished... Yay! I learned a *lot* in that class.

Only a couple of classes left to finish before I get to concentrate on research until \approx October.

People...

2006-06-01T02:41:00.000-07:00

Just when I think they can't become more stupid, they prove me wrong. Who the heck turns in a final draft of a term paper without spell checking or citations!? Apparently lots of people in my BEM class...

Ugh foo!

2006-05-31T01:04:00.000-07:00

I don't really feel like working; stomach flu and strong cough have replaced dizziness, but none of it makes me want to pay attention to anything. Luckily, I'm competely done in a week and don't really have that much to do.

Ge11c (Planetary Science): final (3h)
Cheb (Orgo synthesis): 2 labs (6-8h), 1 lab report (10-20h)
Ge177b (Geology of Earthquakes): Final Project (15-20h)
Ph1c (E&M II): Final Homework (4-5h), Final (~4h)
BEM106(Competitive Strategy): Final Presentation (4h)

Then I start my research and work at a lower pace until I feel better.... Finally, I work 80-100 hour weeks so I can try to do a 30-40 week project in 13-16 weeks! =)

Love, hugs, kitties,
APK

Last week of classes...

2006-05-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

Only have a few more things to finish before I am finished with attending classes. Then a final and a lab report later I am done for... the term.

Sick

2006-05-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

Not feeling good at the end of term is bad...

Kitties Are Dangerous

2006-05-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of being up late at night is seeing the kitties involved in mischief. On this night of great moment, they went to the Computer Work Desk. While this is a rugged, unforgiving landscape with a merciless guardian ("Awww... cute kitty's on my keyboard..."), there lies within it many bookmarks and sticky notes to be had by The Few, The Brave, The Kittes.

Cleaning the ghostly, putrid battle ground,
-APK

Out for a few days...

2006-05-23T02:26:00.000-07:00

Ear infection; I'm not going to be doing much for the next week, probably. I'm glad this happened now rather than later! =D

I can't wait till I'm in lab for the summer... =)

Cheers,
APK

Dream

2006-05-18T02:43:00.000-07:00

I had this really strange dream last night where redoing a sequence of actions with one other person until everything was just right... kind of like an action movie where things don't quite go correctly the first time, but each time you go through the scenes you learn what you should do so you can correctly accomplish your task the next time through. The plot got really long and complex, but we were able to avoid getting caught by the hotels we were invading and stealing food from, evade the crazy homicidal people near the gas station by the field, and get away from the hoards of people that were chasing us for some reason. It was great fun in general because we were able to do and time everything perfectly...

Finally, we decided once that we weren't going to do things the same way from the place we "started" (which was some group of geologists meeting together.) We went with them to look at some area by some hills and rivers, but very quickly I and whoever I was with noticed that we had done all of this stuff before! It was very eerie, but then I woke up...

Strange. I guess that's what I get for sleeping until 6pm. =P

Insomnia

2006-05-17T04:30:00.000-07:00

Ugh. I feel awful. 4.5 hours of trying to sleep with no success. To the Health Center I go ni the morning!

-APK

Cute kitties

2006-05-15T00:57:00.000-07:00

Cybil tried to stand on some papers on my desk (well, not *quite* on my desk) and managed to fall down, scared herself, and ran under the bed. About 5 seconds later she was back on the desk purring loudly again... =D

APK

Summer Plans

2006-05-14T01:42:00.000-07:00

June 09-September 25th: Working for Dr. Jean-Philippe Avouac full time
June 24-July 8th: Tian Shan expedition with J-P
August 08-Agusut 20: RSI China last week TA
August 25th-September 20th: Watchstand on trans pacific oceanographic cruse (i.e. work for J-P 12 hours/day)

September 20th-October 10th: Do reasearch for J-P and play in New Zealand
September 25th: Classes at Caltech start
October 11th-October 24th: Oceaographic Cruse with Joann and Rob.
October 26th-27th: return to Caltech to start fall term.

=)
-APK

Goal at caltech...

2006-05-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

I think my main goal at Caltech now is to be able to figure out stuff with a minimum of help. We'll see how that goes...

Lost and Found!

2006-05-13T00:07:00.000-07:00

Holy crap. I successfully found something I filled away over a year ago within 5 minutes of looking for it! Yay for taking time to organize things =)

Kitties!

2006-05-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

I got two kitties on Wednesday, and I love them! =)

Geology

2006-04-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

I think one thing that bothers me about geology research is we are not sure our methods will approximately find (forget about assymptotal approach) the correct soultion except in a few *very* special circumstances. I guess this may mean geology and related fields are area to I may be able to contribute quit a bit. We'll see this summer....

Back on Track

2006-04-20T04:53:00.000-07:00

Although I did wake up at 3:30, I think I'm a lot more on schedule than I was.... and at least I'm getting my normal amount of sleep again.

Note to self: don't bother to go to chem lab on 3 hours of sleep; you will end up forgetting important things like your lab notebook and reagents... only a week behind in Chem lab now. =D We'll have to see if I can catch up. Yay for taking classes pass/fail!

Chem lab report and geology of earthquakes lab due tomorrow, so I should probably get working on those....

Signing out,
APK

Learning

2006-04-19T06:01:00.000-07:00

I'm going to do my best to learn material rather than care about grades. So far, it's working well in the class I'm taking pass/fail. =D

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I might as well enjoy it!

Dance

2006-04-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

My choice is to dance through life for the next few months, then see what summer brings. I have released stressed (hopefully for some time) and I embrace the pleasures and temptations of the mind. If all goes well, I will remain similing through this fall at least =)

A smiling, sleepy,
-APK

The missing links in our lives

2006-04-17T22:55:00.000-07:00

Me:
1. Work hard
2. ...
3. Happiness!

This seems remarkably similar to something I saw on South Park over spring break.

Underpants Gnomes:
1. Steal underpants
2. ....
3. Profit!

Luckily for me, working hard is much more socially acceptable than stealing underpants... otherwise my life could be much more difficult than it is.

Night time

2006-04-11T03:12:00.000-07:00

Can't sleep... I'm very tense, and I'm not sure why... probably something to do with all of the work I'm doing. The question is whether I should do less or try to control what I *am* doing so that I can relax occationally.

Too true...

2006-04-11T01:52:00.000-07:00

Sundance Kid: Well, I think I'll get saddled up and go looking for a woman.
Butch Cassidy: Good hunting.
Sundance Kid: Shouldn't take more than a couple of days. I'm not picky. As long as she's smart, pretty, and sweet, and gentle, and tender, and refined, and lovely, and carefree ...

^.^

2006-04-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

YAY! I have my iPod back and 2 more days of Jpop =D

Thanks to Ryoko!

Hums

2006-04-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

I need to take a social science or humanities course every term.... when I got tired of my homework earlier today, I pulled out my Competitive Strategy book and started reading. It's so easy to read and understand business compared to doing math/science homework. Or at least that's the way it seems. Most likely, I need to rest that part of my brain (or at least become less frustrated) and do something else for a while. We'll see if I feel the same way toward the end of the term....

Finally!

2006-04-08T02:20:00.000-07:00

Luckily, it seems like my blogging widget is finally working.

This weekend is going to be full of homework, proposal writing, and figuring out if I can actually stay on a schedule over a weekend for once... as you can tell by the timing of this post, I'm not exactly sticking to it tonight, but...

Top 10 Things You Need to Know for the Next 10 Years

2006-04-01T22:42:00.000-08:00

Please read, my friends. Enjoy!

Paraphrased from speech by David Rensin, July 2005
Typed by Dominik Rabiej

1. You will experience no-win situations

Oftentimes this will happen b/c of jealousy/spiteful

When you face those situations: change the rules

When asked a trick question, answer an answerable question

Someone is just trying to screw with your head.

2. Try hard to pick up something from 'mainstream culture'
(e.g. People, Entertainment Weekly) and read it so as to be vaguely
in touch with society.

3. When you say something, know precisely what you are saying.

Use only words whose meaning you know.

Never ever be afraid of the words you use IF you are speaking the truth.

Don't not present a theory because you think someone might ridicule you.

Everyone who did everything with their lives started out being ridiculed.

4. Whenever you hear a sentence that starts with "conventional wisdom
is..." you are guaranteed that everything afterwards is
bullshit/unproven. The term is originally derogatory (first
appeared in an economics paper).

5. Answer little questions. They lead to big answers.

The shorter the question, the more important the answer.

e.g. Is there a God?
e.g. Why are we here?

6. When you see a large group of people acting in a way you feel is
illogical, you just don't understand their internal logic. They
may or may not be wrong, but you do not understand them.

7. The n of 1 problem... The n of too small...

What you like, your peers, your friends + family like ... does not
necessarily qualify to be what the rest of the world likes.

Beware a sample size that is too small.

8. Normal distribution. Power curve. Financial markets aren't
normally distributed; they're power curves. Get a good
distribution function and tread lightly if it even looks a tiny bit
not like a normal distribution.

There are two great jumps in mathematics where people get lost.

discrete->non-discrete
continuous->statistics

If scientists are so smart and business people so dumb, why are the
business people so rich and the scientists so poor.

Take basic economics and management courses in college.

Good business people and good scientists are very valuable.

People who can explain science to business people and business to
science people are orders of magnitude more valuable.

Everything you do in your life is a business. Get used to it, it
is the way the works.

You don't have to like it, but know the rules.

9. You are gifted.
You are ambitious.

Having the power to choose means you have the obligation to choose.

Ambivalence isn't an option.

Make sure you have facts to support your opinion. Take a stand.

Say something. Express an opinion. Influence.

10. Develop thick skin.

The older you get, the more jealous people will be of you.

It only gets worse.

The more successful you are, the more intelligent you are, the more
subject to ridicule you will be.

The nuclear option to use on someone who is teasing you:
Option 1: Smack a bully on the nose before they hit you.

Option 2: "It's okay. I know why you tease me, because this is as
good as it's going to get for you. You're going to grow up, get
married and probably married and have some kids you may or not see
again. You'll go to work and won't be able to wait until 5 o'clock
to get off work. You're not going to be this strong, this fast or
this popular again. And you know what? People like you are going
to work for me. So go ahead and tease. Enjoy it while you can; I
don't care. Go ahead, knock my books down -- it's just a
demonstration of the law of gravity and I already knew it worked
anyway."

Reading List

1. The Wordly Philosophers
2. The Screwtape Letters
3. Freakeconomics

Also:

You will need faith in your life. Faith is something that cannot be
proved or disproved. A prime example of where you must have faith is in
existence of God. You must come to a decision one way or the other
and believe in it, else you will not be able to use faith in life.

Be good to good people.

Something from google that doesn't work

2006-04-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to get the google blogger widget to work, so this effort as well might fail.
=/

In any case, Brown's on the phone so I'll talk to her for awhile, and probably get back to physics reading so I don't have to work on stuff for a few weeks in that class... all in prep for getting my butt kicked by Ge 163 and Ge 177b. Woot.

Cheers,
APK

Hmmmm

2006-04-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

This is something like the 4th time I've tried to keep some kind of record of what I'm up to online.... let's see if the ease of widgets helps me *actually* do it this time. =)

Cheers,
APK