I know you all have been on the edge of your seats this entire summer waiting for me to blog about math camp. Well wait no more!
Math Camp was broken up into two weeks. The first week I was at Rennsellar Polytechnic Institute in NY and the second I was at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in MA. The first week basically tries to prepare the grad students for the second week. We divided into groups and worked on either previously solved problems or problems that needed further work. The problem I worked on dealt with diffusion through the lens of the eye. We had data provided to us and we used what we learned about the chemistry and biology of the lens to create a model that would describe the data.
There were seven of us in our group which is quite large and for three days we sat in a windowless, clockless room and worked on this problem. Over those three days I learned a lot: what Bessel functions are, in England you call an eraser a board rubber, group work is incredibly tiring, and I'm still bossy.
On the last day we presented our findings, packed up and left for Worcester. We had the weekend free though so I took a side trip to Amherst and hung out with some friends there which was great as always.
At Worcester the grad students were no longer in control. These problems were "live" problems, meaning no one had solved them. Since they were live they were pretty difficult so the groups consisted of 3-4 professors and some grad students. The students role was to the grunt work like taking notes and typing them up. It was actually pretty interesting to sit in the back and watch these profs up at the board yelling at each and writing over each other to prove their points. It showed how no one's write 100% of the time.
The group I was in was working on a problem dealing with air bubbles in LCD screens. It dealt with fluid dynamics, which I know nothing about. Luckily, a professor from my university was at the camp and knew my shortcomings so every so often he would come over and get me up to speed about what the professors were yelling about. By the end of the week we had a decent amount accomplished that we were able to present to Corning.
Math camp was fun but it was tiring. After it was all done I stayed in Boston for a few days and caught up with some college friends. Those stories are way more interesting than math camp and will be relayed in the coming days.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Thursday, June 05, 2008
The life and times of a nomad
I survived my first year in grad school and I did quite well if I do say so myself. Not only are my grades good but I found a nice group of friends, have an ok work study job, AND I have a season pass to Disneyland. I'm gonna pat myself on the back for that one. One of my final papers was posted by my prof on their website check it out at www.math.hmc.edu/~levy/181_web/181_finalprojects_2008.html.
The only thing I lack right now is a place to live. My lease was up at the house and my land lady was getting more passive aggressive by the day so I decided it was time to pack up all of my things and move into my own studio apartment. The only problem is that this brand new studio apartment does not become mine until August. Whoops. But have no fear, a moocher always has a plan.
Right now I am in Ohio spending some quality time with the ladies, who I haven't seen since Thanksgiving. I am enjoying taking up space on their couch, baking cookies, and playing guitar hero until my hand cramps. Sadly the fun will end this weekend when I venture to NY for (drum roll please) Math Camp! That's right. Just when you thought I had reached my pinnacle of geekdom I have managed to surpass it by signing up for a graduate math camp. The first three days I and other aspiring mathemagicians will work on problems presented to us by the faculty of RPI. After those three days we will travel to Worcester where new problems will be presented. This time the problems are from industry and the work groups are comprised of scientists, professors, and lowly grad students such as myself. We will work on our problem for five days and present our findings to the industry rep so as they can take it back and do what they please with it. Not only am I getting to do math for two weeks in the summer and working some networking opportunities, I am doing this all on their dime. The whole trip: travel, food, lodging is payed for. It's a math moochers paradise.
After the camp is over I am staying a couple of days in Boston to catch up with some college friends. Then it's back to LA where I will be doing a cycle of couch surfing that will have me alternating where I lay my head from B-digs apt/air mattress, to Susie the mom of the kid I tutor's couch. All the while working and getting a tan.
Barring Briana realizing that I mooch a little too much off of her, this couch surfing rotation should get me through to August where I will finally have my first apartment of my own. Now tell me that's not skill.
The only thing I lack right now is a place to live. My lease was up at the house and my land lady was getting more passive aggressive by the day so I decided it was time to pack up all of my things and move into my own studio apartment. The only problem is that this brand new studio apartment does not become mine until August. Whoops. But have no fear, a moocher always has a plan.
Right now I am in Ohio spending some quality time with the ladies, who I haven't seen since Thanksgiving. I am enjoying taking up space on their couch, baking cookies, and playing guitar hero until my hand cramps. Sadly the fun will end this weekend when I venture to NY for (drum roll please) Math Camp! That's right. Just when you thought I had reached my pinnacle of geekdom I have managed to surpass it by signing up for a graduate math camp. The first three days I and other aspiring mathemagicians will work on problems presented to us by the faculty of RPI. After those three days we will travel to Worcester where new problems will be presented. This time the problems are from industry and the work groups are comprised of scientists, professors, and lowly grad students such as myself. We will work on our problem for five days and present our findings to the industry rep so as they can take it back and do what they please with it. Not only am I getting to do math for two weeks in the summer and working some networking opportunities, I am doing this all on their dime. The whole trip: travel, food, lodging is payed for. It's a math moochers paradise.
After the camp is over I am staying a couple of days in Boston to catch up with some college friends. Then it's back to LA where I will be doing a cycle of couch surfing that will have me alternating where I lay my head from B-digs apt/air mattress, to Susie the mom of the kid I tutor's couch. All the while working and getting a tan.
Barring Briana realizing that I mooch a little too much off of her, this couch surfing rotation should get me through to August where I will finally have my first apartment of my own. Now tell me that's not skill.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Favorite Airport Ever
Charlotte NC Airport has rocking chairs, free wireless, and customers proudly "reading" Playboy magazines while waiting for their flights.
Friday, April 18, 2008
really?
Next night, same road, same time, same freaking cat!
Am I in a Truman Show-like world? Trust me, I can take it. I am pretty convinced the world revolves around me to begin with so if you all just admit that you are characters in a reality tv show with me as the star I would believe it. I swear. All I want is the truth. I can handle the truth.
Goodnight.
Although you probably already knew I was going to go to bed at this hour didn't you? Is it scripted? I want answers!
Am I in a Truman Show-like world? Trust me, I can take it. I am pretty convinced the world revolves around me to begin with so if you all just admit that you are characters in a reality tv show with me as the star I would believe it. I swear. All I want is the truth. I can handle the truth.
Goodnight.
Although you probably already knew I was going to go to bed at this hour didn't you? Is it scripted? I want answers!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Roadkill Etiquette
It's finals time here at CGU and as I was leaving the library tonight and driving home, someone's house cat ran into the middle of the street. I gasped and slammed on my brakes and luckily I didn't hit the cat. But my mind started to wander as I continued driving and the question arose, what would I have done if I had actually hit the cat? I mean clearly I would have felt bad, but what is the etiquette? It was midnight, do you knock on doors to let people know what happened and try to find the owner? Do you just move the cat to the sidewalk so it doesn't keep getting run over? or do you just drive away and feel bad for awhile?
These are things that go through my mind after a marathon library session....
These are things that go through my mind after a marathon library session....
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
And Another Thing About Vegas
One night we were in the casino Paris and there was a Cabaret singer performing so we sat down and watched. The woman had an awesome voice but her voice wasn't the main focal point of the event. To the right of us were three men that were Papa Fosse's age. The table to the next of them were three girls who were 21 at the oldest. The guys were talking to them and then all of the girls got up to go to the bathroom. When they returned they saw that the three men had bought them glasses of champagne with strawberries in them. Cute or weird? I can't tell. If it were a tequila shot I would go straight for the weird button. But champagne and a strawberry falls into the Shirley Temple-esque category and I construe it as three guys being nostalgic and treating these girls they way they would their grandkids. So I say cute. The girls didn't think so though because they downed the drinks and bounced as soon as they could.
Next up came the cute couple who made everyone else jealous. A song came on and suddenly on the dance floor is this petite blond woman who is in her fifties and her gorgeous fifty-something husband/boyfriend. They started dancing and it was legit dancing. I felt like I was watching a pilot for My Momma Can Dance. They were really good, he was twirling her and throwing her up in the air and they did it all with smiles on their faces. I couldn't help it though. All I could think was that soon the singer was going to drop her voice a couple of octaves and recommend Cyalis to the gentlemen in the back.
Ok, back to homework.
Next up came the cute couple who made everyone else jealous. A song came on and suddenly on the dance floor is this petite blond woman who is in her fifties and her gorgeous fifty-something husband/boyfriend. They started dancing and it was legit dancing. I felt like I was watching a pilot for My Momma Can Dance. They were really good, he was twirling her and throwing her up in the air and they did it all with smiles on their faces. I couldn't help it though. All I could think was that soon the singer was going to drop her voice a couple of octaves and recommend Cyalis to the gentlemen in the back.
Ok, back to homework.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Spring break Part Deux
After the fun in Medieval Times was had the only way to really top it was to drive 3 hours northeast and go to my long awaited Xanadu....Vegas!! Originally the trip was going to be four of us but slowly that whittled down to me and Elise. We stayed at the Luxor, the one that looks like a pyramid. It was a pretty nice hotel. My favorite part was that the parking structure was in the shape of an Egyptian Sphynx and our hotel room had a perfect view of the Sphynx's ass.
Clearly the after a few minutes in the room we made our first batch of mixed drinks, put them in keg cups, filled up my nalgene with the rest, and filled my backpack full of beer. This was a drinking night, NOT a gambling night. Elise and I just walked through all of the casinos that are on that side of the strip: New York New York, Excalibur, MGM Grand, and I think there was another one in there but lets be honest, I had no clue where I was at any point in time...I just followed Elise (I am my mother's daughter). We walked around and at one point Elise commented that she wasn't really feeling the alcohol. I agreed. But then we came upon this computer screen in the middle of the floor. It was touch sensitive and was displaying a fish bowl. So when you stepped on the screen there was a ripple effect in the water and the fishies would swim away. Well Elise and I proceeded to dance around on the screen singing "Singing in the Rain." It goes without saying that it was a good thing we didn't place bets on us being sober.
We wound up going to a night club that night also. We were going to go to Studio 54 but there was a long line and I just refuse to stand in lines anywhere outside of NY. So we went to Taboo. The dj was awesome the people were alright. My favorite part of the night was when Elise and I were standing on the side finishing up our drinks and this guy just goes right next to Elise and puts his arm around her. She just looks at him with this "are you kidding me?" face. I chose to verbalize by just looking at him and saying "Really? Really?! No." Classic.
The next couple of days were more the same thing with some slot playing involved. We were both doing pretty good on slots, but on Monday we decided to try our luck at the tables. We started the day off at the $10 min tables in Bally's where we learned how to play roulette and blackjack. Blackjack is my new favorite game. I would throw $40 down to play and an hour later I would leave the table with over $100. It was sweet. What I really like about blackjack is that everyone is betting against the dealer so that people try to help you decided whether to hit or not. If you hit and you shouldn't have you might mess up somebody else's hand. Case in point: I was at this table and the guy to the left of me was being real friendly and helping me out remembering what to do if the dealer is showing a four and all that jazz. He kept on saying that I didn't have to take his advice if I didn't want to, it was my money. Well on one hand I decided to not take his advice and I hit. I busted and the card that busted me would have given the guy to the left of me a really good hand. He proceeded to get pissed off. He wouldn't let it go. He just kept on mumbling to himself about me not taking his advice. The dealer and everyone else at the table were getting uneasy. They could tell this guy was upset and they didn't really know how I was going to react, was I going to fly off the handle? Leave the table? No no no. The guy asked me why I didn't listen to him and I said "It's how I roll." Everyone at the table started laughing which pissed this guy off even more. At this point he started muttering to himself "It's how she rolls, It's how she rolls." The dealer just looks at the two of us and asked if we were married. I laughed and promptly cashed out my winnings and left the table.
All in all it was a great four days. Outside of Blackjack, the Price is Right slot machine at Planet Hollywood was very nice to me. Beginner's luck certainly rang true for me and Elise, we both left with more money than we came with. Enough money, in fact, that we made back what the trip cost and then some. I can't wait to go back!
The rest of my week was just spent hanging out and then on Friday I went to Disneyland for the whole day. It was awesome. A bunch more of my friends got season passes which is great. We also bought these buzz lightyear guns that are just awesome. My one friend did a rolling jump out of the store just to shoot us. Hilarious.
Now it's back to the school grind which really isn't that bad. The weather is still beautiful, I spent Easter Sunday on the beach. As far as summer plans go, they aren't really hashed out yet. All I really know for sure is I am moving at the end of May. I don't where I'm moving to, but that stuff just figures itself out, right? If all else fails, watch out I might be coming to a couch near you...
Clearly the after a few minutes in the room we made our first batch of mixed drinks, put them in keg cups, filled up my nalgene with the rest, and filled my backpack full of beer. This was a drinking night, NOT a gambling night. Elise and I just walked through all of the casinos that are on that side of the strip: New York New York, Excalibur, MGM Grand, and I think there was another one in there but lets be honest, I had no clue where I was at any point in time...I just followed Elise (I am my mother's daughter). We walked around and at one point Elise commented that she wasn't really feeling the alcohol. I agreed. But then we came upon this computer screen in the middle of the floor. It was touch sensitive and was displaying a fish bowl. So when you stepped on the screen there was a ripple effect in the water and the fishies would swim away. Well Elise and I proceeded to dance around on the screen singing "Singing in the Rain." It goes without saying that it was a good thing we didn't place bets on us being sober.
We wound up going to a night club that night also. We were going to go to Studio 54 but there was a long line and I just refuse to stand in lines anywhere outside of NY. So we went to Taboo. The dj was awesome the people were alright. My favorite part of the night was when Elise and I were standing on the side finishing up our drinks and this guy just goes right next to Elise and puts his arm around her. She just looks at him with this "are you kidding me?" face. I chose to verbalize by just looking at him and saying "Really? Really?! No." Classic.
The next couple of days were more the same thing with some slot playing involved. We were both doing pretty good on slots, but on Monday we decided to try our luck at the tables. We started the day off at the $10 min tables in Bally's where we learned how to play roulette and blackjack. Blackjack is my new favorite game. I would throw $40 down to play and an hour later I would leave the table with over $100. It was sweet. What I really like about blackjack is that everyone is betting against the dealer so that people try to help you decided whether to hit or not. If you hit and you shouldn't have you might mess up somebody else's hand. Case in point: I was at this table and the guy to the left of me was being real friendly and helping me out remembering what to do if the dealer is showing a four and all that jazz. He kept on saying that I didn't have to take his advice if I didn't want to, it was my money. Well on one hand I decided to not take his advice and I hit. I busted and the card that busted me would have given the guy to the left of me a really good hand. He proceeded to get pissed off. He wouldn't let it go. He just kept on mumbling to himself about me not taking his advice. The dealer and everyone else at the table were getting uneasy. They could tell this guy was upset and they didn't really know how I was going to react, was I going to fly off the handle? Leave the table? No no no. The guy asked me why I didn't listen to him and I said "It's how I roll." Everyone at the table started laughing which pissed this guy off even more. At this point he started muttering to himself "It's how she rolls, It's how she rolls." The dealer just looks at the two of us and asked if we were married. I laughed and promptly cashed out my winnings and left the table.
All in all it was a great four days. Outside of Blackjack, the Price is Right slot machine at Planet Hollywood was very nice to me. Beginner's luck certainly rang true for me and Elise, we both left with more money than we came with. Enough money, in fact, that we made back what the trip cost and then some. I can't wait to go back!
The rest of my week was just spent hanging out and then on Friday I went to Disneyland for the whole day. It was awesome. A bunch more of my friends got season passes which is great. We also bought these buzz lightyear guns that are just awesome. My one friend did a rolling jump out of the store just to shoot us. Hilarious.
Now it's back to the school grind which really isn't that bad. The weather is still beautiful, I spent Easter Sunday on the beach. As far as summer plans go, they aren't really hashed out yet. All I really know for sure is I am moving at the end of May. I don't where I'm moving to, but that stuff just figures itself out, right? If all else fails, watch out I might be coming to a couch near you...
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Birthday and Spring Break Festivities (Part 1)
As some of you may know the word birthday doesn't properly describe the amount of times I force people to go out and celebrate my birth. It used to be that birthmonth was a better description of my celebration but as I get older I have scaled back my celebration to a birthfortnight. The beauty of the birthfortnight is that it still encompasses St. Patrick's Day AND since I refuse to leave academia I still get a spring break that usually falls within the birthfortnight also. Being that I was in a new town planning the birthfortnight was a little tricky. I didn't know the lay of the land and I don't really party as much as I used to (because of grad school NOT maturity OR old age) so I was stumped for a bit on what to do. But then good ole kismet kicked in.
A couple of my friends and I were driving back from Disneyland (where I know have a season pass to) and we passed a billboard about Medieval Times. I thought the only MT was in Jersey but I was mistaken. Through I simple conversation I had find out that all of my Claremont friends had never been to MT. Now lets be clear, I had to go to MT two times on class trips and both times were horrendous. I hate the food and anytime a I had spend an entire day with my entire class was usually a recipe for disaster. But being a good Jersey girl I realized I had to suck it up, do my duty, and introduce these graduate students to the wondrous cheesiness that is Medieval Times!
The one detail that I didn't know about Medieval Times but that made it even better was there was beer:
The beer made the roast chicken taste better. Ha! Who am I kidding? I traded my chicken for an extra spare rib. Anyway, we were cheering for the Yellow Knight and it was fantastic. We were screaming, hooting, and hollering any chance we could get. It also turns out that my friends paid a little extra to get the birthday package. This package was high class. Not only did I get a group picture of all of us, I also got an official program, AND a dvd copy of the knight's festivities. (hahaha get it?). But wait that's not all! I also got a birthday shout out by the king himself! That's right, after they welcomed north shore high school, and wished johnny a happy thirteenth birthday, there was a shout out for a happy 25th birthday for Lyza Fosse!
Aside: Lyza wasn't actually a mispronunciation of my name. There is another friend of mine named Elise and it's been hard to distinguish between the two of us. It got to the point that we were being addressed as PhD Elise and Masters Elyse. I wasn't really cool with that. Then we were all at this part and this guy kept on calling me Lyza. No kidding it was at least the third time I had met him and everytime he's been all "Hey Lyza" and I've been all "umm it's Elyse." But Meryl has always taught me you correct somebody three times and after that it's just not worth it. So my friends caught wind that this guy was calling me Lyza and the name stuck. A new nickname. Great.
This time at Medieval Times was by far the best the experience I've had there. Don't fret though, the next part of the birthday festivities was even better...Vegas!!(Coming soon).
A couple of my friends and I were driving back from Disneyland (where I know have a season pass to) and we passed a billboard about Medieval Times. I thought the only MT was in Jersey but I was mistaken. Through I simple conversation I had find out that all of my Claremont friends had never been to MT. Now lets be clear, I had to go to MT two times on class trips and both times were horrendous. I hate the food and anytime a I had spend an entire day with my entire class was usually a recipe for disaster. But being a good Jersey girl I realized I had to suck it up, do my duty, and introduce these graduate students to the wondrous cheesiness that is Medieval Times!
The one detail that I didn't know about Medieval Times but that made it even better was there was beer:
The beer made the roast chicken taste better. Ha! Who am I kidding? I traded my chicken for an extra spare rib. Anyway, we were cheering for the Yellow Knight and it was fantastic. We were screaming, hooting, and hollering any chance we could get. It also turns out that my friends paid a little extra to get the birthday package. This package was high class. Not only did I get a group picture of all of us, I also got an official program, AND a dvd copy of the knight's festivities. (hahaha get it?). But wait that's not all! I also got a birthday shout out by the king himself! That's right, after they welcomed north shore high school, and wished johnny a happy thirteenth birthday, there was a shout out for a happy 25th birthday for Lyza Fosse!
Aside: Lyza wasn't actually a mispronunciation of my name. There is another friend of mine named Elise and it's been hard to distinguish between the two of us. It got to the point that we were being addressed as PhD Elise and Masters Elyse. I wasn't really cool with that. Then we were all at this part and this guy kept on calling me Lyza. No kidding it was at least the third time I had met him and everytime he's been all "Hey Lyza" and I've been all "umm it's Elyse." But Meryl has always taught me you correct somebody three times and after that it's just not worth it. So my friends caught wind that this guy was calling me Lyza and the name stuck. A new nickname. Great.
This time at Medieval Times was by far the best the experience I've had there. Don't fret though, the next part of the birthday festivities was even better...Vegas!!(Coming soon).
Saturday, February 09, 2008
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