A Serious Blog (I promise not to do this often!)

In class today, Dr. Kupershmidt mentioned that there were a great many 19th century mathematicians and scientists who made incredible discoveries and died in their 20's and early 30's. He said that if they had the medical care and knowledge that we have today, we'd be living on the moon and Mars by now.

That whole thing made me think, why was there such a concentration of intelligence at that point in history? What else would these great minds have discovered if they lived into their 70's or 80's? Why, with people living so long now, are we not having the same volume of technological advances that occured in the 19th century? Why aren't we living on the moon and Mars by now?

Perhaps the time period was such that knowledge at that time naturally led to a great many discoveries, like when one new thing is happened upon and it naturally leads to many many new concepts to explore. Maybe there was emphasis on math and science advancement. Maybe government played a larger role in advancing science and pushed for new discoveries and theorems. Perhaps society viewed a mathematician as one of the most revered occupations, like a doctor or lawyer is today.

The scariest thought is that we've made all these advances in science and medicine at the cost of knowledge. We've discovered television, video games, internet dating, movies, and other ways to pass our time, and we no longer spend our time reading, learning and proving. Perhaps we can now live into our 80's or 90's but we can still only acheive what past men achieved in only 20 years. Or what if we're achieving less?

There are so many ways to pass time these days, and I enjoy them all, playing computer games, watching tv and movies, blogging (haha). I just hope that as a society we keep advancing in all areas, including math and science, and don't limit ourselves to entertainmnt and medicine (not that they're not important). I saw an episode of Outer Limit (maybe Seaquest?) once where a man and woman, both early 20's, were the only people left in their world, and both had spent most of their lives playing an interactive video game. Their people had built this huge game that you sit in and play, and everyone had stopped doing anything else and just played and died.

Anyway, I hope for society's sake, that we're still advancing in mathematics, and I think we are. On a more positive note, tomorrow is Sammy Day!!

P.S. I opened up comments if anyone wants to post a nugget of wisdom...

A Chest of Drawers

Alright, this will be the first of two posts tonight. I haven't blogged in a while, so first off I'll catch up on my weekend.

Friday night was the Halloween pizza movie night at school. I was a 'chest of drawers' (pinned underoos to my chest). We had Elvira, a horned monk, a terrorist, Frankenstein and his Bride, a samurai, and even a professor. It was fun, and there were a lot of great costumes. I won the contest for "most creative." I got a gift card for O'Charleys and a round of applause, lovely.

Saturday night I was invited to dress up again and go to a bar with Kim and Sonya and a bunch of people. I didn't think a bar was the right venue to walk in with underwear pinned to myself, so I spent Saturday coming up with a different costume. I found lots of gold gawdy jewelry and accessories and a gold sequin vest thing and I painted a shovel gold and went as a 'gold-digger'. Also creative, I earned that gift card.

There was a costume contest at the bar, and just about everybody in our group made it into the contest. We contributed Pippi Longstocking, Darth Vader, a fallen angel, an evil monk, the gold-digger, the terrorist, an X-wing pilot, and Frankenstein and Bride Of. Darth (Kim's husband) won first place and $75 and they treated us to Waffle House after we left. Very very nice of them. It was a great night. Also, I learned that mostly people don't turn in assignments for Dr. Kimble's classes except for the final project, so I've been sweating over nothing. And, the terrorist told me that Dr. Kupershmidt does not hate me or America, that's just how he is, and apparantly he used to be one of the top 5 mathematicians in the country, so I could see how he's a bit cranky.

Sunday I woke up and drove to Nashville for the Life Teen Halloween party at church. We had a great turnout, lots of adorable kids all dressed up, and I think the teens really enjoyed running all the games. I drove home last night and crashed and got up for class this morning.

That was my very busy, but lots of fun, weekend. More tonight on today and a very interesting Dr. Kupershmidt comment. You're intrigued...I can tell.

Sammy

Well, I'll start with yesterday. Had math class in the morning and seminar in the afternoon. It was a good day, the seminar was cool, and he had cool "commercials" during his presentation featuring the trunk monkey. If you don't know what that is, shame on you. www.trunkmonkey.com - go and look at it. Now. Also, I played hangman during some of it, good way to pass the time.

Today was math class again, and it did not go well. Dr. K told us about the most advanced calculus book there is, and how it contains very difficult practice problems and exercises. Then he told us it's not used in the US for obvious reasons. Go ahead and insult me, but leave my country out of it. Damnit.

Then we did a double integral problem on the board that we were representing as an iterated integral and he made a mistake graphing the region. I said "Excuse me sir, but I think your triangle is incorrect." He said "Nope". I said, "Well, that's nice, except that it is wrong." He stared at me for a little bit, then looked at the board for a little more bit, and said yes, you're right. Then he said "Thank you Ms. Cartier" but more like a question than a thank you... Like he didn't know how I could possibly be correct. Yesterday I corrected him too, and he just fixed it on the board and did some trademark staring. Jeff corrected him once and got a star, and a sincere thank you. Is it because I'm a woman? I feel jipped.

Maybe I can't solve your fancy difficult Russian Calculus problems, but I know that 'y' goes up and down, thank you very much!

Better news, I heard from the pug lady today, and I'm going to meet Sammy on Tuesday for possible adoption. I get to meet him and if I love him (how could I not!) then I get to take him home and test drive him for a couple days and then fill out the adoption papers if everything seems kosher. He's a very sweet, calm 7 year old pug, who is getting fixed this week (poor boy). I bought him some snacks, balls and wet wipes at Wal-Mart today. I also cleaned out a crate for his things when he moves in, I'm very excited!!

I'll keep everyone up to date on Sammy and try to get some pictures out soon. I get him on Halloween, so I'm working on a good costume...Wonder-Pug?

Want to pull my string?

Line from Boston Legal, William Shatner is such a quack. Haven't been on here in a while, church dinner Saturday was very fun. We got a skimpy crowd, which is a big disappointment, but we probably broke even, with the sales from the booze. The next one is the Turkey night, which I really want to go to, but it would mean not going to the LSU game. It's a tough choice, but I'm leaning toward the pumpkin pie.

Dinner with the Superfriends last night was fun, Italian night. I forgot the spaghetti of course, I think I'm losing my mind, but we had plenty of food anyway. Now I have to remember to bring the big pan of pasta in for the boys, cause I'll never eat it.

Today was absolutely beautiful. The leaves were fantastic and there were deer out in the circle in front of school. I got some great pictures of the lake with all the leaves changing, and of the deer of course. It was cold, for sure, but bearable in the sun. I was so inspired that I decided to run outside today instead of in the gym.

Of course running outside is always a little scary because of my ankle, but I wore my brace and stayed on the pavement. All was well. I got about 3/4 of a mile down the road and my foot slipped off the pavement into the grass and I twisted my ankle. My good ankle. I am the clumsiest person in the world. So, I had to walk almost a mile back to my car and pack it in. I guess it's the elliptical machine for me tomorrow. Sometimes I think I'm a ditz in a normal person's body.

P.S. Mom-I can see you dialing my number right now, and I promise my ankle is fine, no swelling, no bruising.

Also-I almost forgot, hopefully I'm adopting a pug soon! I contacted a rescue in Nashville, and they're looking for a pug for me, wouldn't that be fabulous!?

Wonderful

Today started out good, but quickly headed downhill. Math class was great today, Dr. K has really been letting me down lately with the lectures, but today he was fantastic. I think the midterm brought him down in the last few weeks, but today he was joking and telling us about his high-jumping with girls. He was all excited and animated, I loved it.

My engineering class was fine, and Dr. Vakili didn't give our tests back, which kept me happy. My wavelet class sucked. Apparantly we all the sudden have assignments (what's that about!?) and I have no idea what's going on. Hopefully I'll be able to track down the elusive Dr. Kimble tomorrow and get some help. I was going to run after class but I started feeling really crappy on the way home. Migraine and a tummy ache, and that about rounded out my day.

On the upside, tomorrow is Friday, and I have the church dinner Saturday, so that'll be fun. Also, Sunday is another Superfriends dinner, 'Italian Night', yay! And...tonight was Grey's Anatomy, which is always a mood lifter, so all is well, good night folks!

P.S. It turns out "wonderful" is an Amy word- if I'm going to have my own words, that's a good one to have.

Good day today. Had a seminar this afternoon, and went running (much needed). I was pretty much a slug over fall break, and I stuffed my face with wonderful restaurant and Vegas buffet food, so the running was good. It felt good to get back into it too, I do enjoy it. The seminar was good, it was Dr. Vakili, and he's funny, so it was interesting, and I learned some stuff.

I posted the pictures of Karen's wedding dress today, and was showing them off to Heather, and got all misty again. It's so real to see her in the dress, veil and everything. It brings the whole thing home. It's been really easy to plan this whole thing and not really think that it's my baby sister getting MARRIED. It's so strange to think that she'll be a wife and a member of a different family. I think of my mom as the rock and center of our family, and it's so strange to think that Karen will be filling that role in a family of her own.

It seems like all of my friends are married/engaged, and now Karen too. I've heard that it hits in waves, so maybe I'll be on the next one, who knows, but I'm happy where I am. I do hope I can find someone for me like Jason is for her. I know they love eachother very much, and more importantly, they can tolerate the worst things in eachothers' personalities and they bring out some of the best.

Anyway, good night for now, I've got a full day of classes tomorrow, my first one in over a week, so I better head to bed...

Fall Break

Well, so much to tell since my last post. We went to Vegas for fall break (yay!). I won a little over $20. Very nice. We stayed at Treasure Island, and it was fantastic!! Our room had a couch and 2 bathrooms! One had a big shower and the other had an incredible whirlpool tub. It was huge, you could swim laps. Much fun. If I ever get a house I want a gigantic tub with jets.

Then we went to Barstow, CA to visit Karen and her fiance and find a wedding dress. She tried on lots of dresses to no avail, but when she tried on THE ONE, we all cried, and we knew it was perfect. She looked like a princess. On the way back we stayed in Primm and I lost the $20 that I won in Vegas, but oh well. I was lucky in the airport though and played for a while, but ended up cashing out with what I put in. Free entertainment, always nice.

All in all, the weekend was really lovely, it was so wonderful to see Karen, and I had fun with Jason and seeing her house and California is beautiful. On the not so fantastic side, Mrs. Grimes, my high school math teacher, died Friday morning. Her funeral is tomorrow at 3, so I'm hanging out here in Nashville until after that. She had very progressed cancer, and is much happier and in a better place now. I only found out she was sick a few weeks ago, and I have a card sitting on my kitchen table that I had planned to write down what she meant to me, and the influence she had on me and send to her, but I suppose she knows all that now. I really would have liked to tell her while she was still alive, but I suppose that's a lesson to be learned. You never know how short life is, so from now on, I'm going to be honest and live every day like it could be the last. You never know when you see someone if it could be the last time, so you should leave no doubt how you feel about them.

I don't know who reads this, but know that I love all of my friends, and I hope you all know how much I care.

Sorry to leave on such a sad note, good night.

Mazel Tov! It's a Boy!

Well, in the aftermath of my midterms, I was pretty upset, which is why I didn't blog last night. The math one went well, but the inciscid one, not so much. There were only 3 problems, the first one I did ok, the last one I did half ok, and the middle one I totally bombed. It was almost identical to a homework problem, and I knew how to do it, but the steps just completely left me. Made me mad at myself more than anything. Turns out I'm not an engineer after all, I guess I'll return to my marathon method of studying. Knew it was too good to be true...

Last night the Superfriends got together for dinner and movies to relax after all the midterms. Watched a very funny movie, Evolution, and watched Studio 60 after that and ate way too much yummy food. It was a good night.

Officially my fall break has begun. I wish I were leaving for Vegas right now, but alas, I have to wait until Wednesday night. I also have some sort of assignment due for Dr. Kimble, but no one has done it and he's gone AWOL so I can't ask him about it. Oh well...

I talked to Karen (sister) today about the trip out and the wedding dress shopping, I'm so excited!! Also found out that his parents are schlubs and we're two ushers short now - Wedding-tastrophe! It'll be fine, and all she needs to worry about is being beautiful and happy and bride-y.

That's all for now, if I hit it big in Vegas, I'll remember the little people...

Damn Onion

Today was not a great day for studying. It was, however, a good day for cooking, movie-watching, cleaning, and sleeping in. It was not a good day for fingers either. I sliced mine while I was chopping an onion. Trying to bandage yourself up one-handed really makes you miss having roommates. Tough to prepare neosporin, gauze and tape with one hand not to mention get the bleeding to stop long enough to put it on. Ah well, it's only a flesh wound.

Tomorrow is the big day of midterms. I've got Vector Calc in the morning and Inviscid in the afternoon. Then I have to make it through Dr. Kimble's class after that, when my brain will certainly be mush. I really hope I'm ready for these midterms. I'm taking a page from the engineers and doing minimal studying, nothing like the Study Marathons for Dr. Schaeffer's exams. I didn't even make flashcards for my Inviscid class.

Nothing makes you miss your mom like slicing yourself open and studying for a test. I miss the days when I got oreos and milk while sitting at the kitchen table doing homework, and cuts were a big deal treated with oohing and aahing and kisses to make it feel better. I guess it's the price you pay to have no bedtime and control the remote. Ah well, wish me luck tomorrow!

Be Excellent

Today I went disc golfing with the boys. They picked me up at 10 and we got to the course in Murfreesboro around 11 to find that the course was closed for a tournament today. Disc golf has tournaments? I didn't even know it was considered a sport... Anyway, we had lunch at McAllister's in Murfreesboro, and that was fun. I went over to their townhouse this afternoon to watch some movies and the UT/Georgia game (more about this later).

We watched The Island, which is a good movie, and not just because Ewan McGregor is in it, although that's all I needed to convince me to see it. Then we watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, which is one of the many late 80's/early 90's movies that I've never seen. It was very funny, and lends itself to some great one liners: "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K."

And now the moment we've all been waiting for: The UT/Georgia Game. Incredible, that's all I can say. I didn't get to see the first half, but the second made up for it. It truly made me happy inside. We beat them 51 to 33. It was a thing of beauty. When we recovered the fumble just outside their endzone and made the touchdown, I almost cried. All in all it was a good day, I felt like of the boys today, almost like I should crack open a beer and scratch something...almost.

Goodnight for now...

Inviscid Confusion

Today I had the engineering class from hell. Everything was going ok until the end of class when he went over a problem from the example midterm - and WHAM! All of the sudden I was gone. Everything . Totally . Over . My . Head. We have another study group in the morning, and I've been poring over the chapter to come up with some good questions. I predict a rough weekend.

The high point of my day was lunch. Went to the cafeteria with the SuperFriends again today, food was good for cafeteria food, and very cheap. Turns out we're the 'cool kids'. They were all flocking to our table like white on rice (I've never understood that analogy...) We had 1 table with 7 people at it, we're definitely cool.

Actually, aside from the unsavory engineering class, I had a pretty fantastic day. Nothing extraordinary, but just happy. I feel like I'm more myself lately than I have been in a while, or maybe happier with who I am - I even like being referred to as THE math major - makes me feel all special inside. Also, Grey's Anatomy was particularly fantastic tonight. At any rate, good day, and now I'm going to bed, to dream of Inviscid Flow and boundary conditions...

My Waspy Friends

OK - It has been a while since I posted anything. As for what's been going on, school and work are going well. There are 4 of us who all have 2 of our classes together, and we study twice a week. Lee (one of the 4) calls us the Superfriends...does that make me WonderWoman? Anyway, it's nice to have people to study with, and I sure need it for Inciscid (which incidentally, I just learned it actually pronounced like "invissid" but i'm going to keep saying the 'c', it's like my thing). Lee and Jeff, half of the superfriends, invited me to play disc golf tomorrow with them and another friend of theirs. That should be interesting, I've never played golf, and I haven't played with a frisbee in more than a decade, so it'll be fun!

Also, I'm fairly positive there is a family of wasps who've taken up residence in my air conditioner, and they fly into my apartment when it's turned off. Therefore, I haven't turned it off yet, but I'm sure it's going to get pretty cold in here come December, so I left a maintenance request about it. I don't know if it's because I'm a girl living alone, or if it is just the policy of maintenance men, but I dont think he believed me about the wasp family. He just sort of spritzed the a/c and said "oh, there must not really be any in there or that would have pissed them off". Right, I guess the 3 wasps I saw crawl in were a figment of my imagination, and besides, a man who does handy work in his spare time and is armed with a can of RAID must be an expert...

Anyway, I taped it all up, so they can't come in unless they're actually coming in where the cold air comes in, so let's hope not. I've got 2 midterms on Monday and I'm scared to death of the InvisCid one. Hope disc golf is everything I imagine tomorrow - g'night!