We're in the fifth week of intensive German now. Tomorrow will be the halfway mark and will also signal that only five weeks remain until my journey to Giessen. Hoo boy! I admit to being in a state of disbelief still. I also think my subconscious is secretly panicking. Who honestly signs up to be away from everything and everybody they love for a whole year? I must have been slightly crazy that morning when I decided to put in my application. I'm sure that when I'm dropped off at the airport it will finally hit me that I won't see (insert person(s) who dropped me off) or anybody for more than a year. I might cry, honest. And then when I land in Frankfurt...oh my. Nobody speaking English, all the signs pointing this way and that saying things that I have to think about first...oi! Thanks goodness Rachel will be there. Of course, I think I'd be pissed if I got there and I heard English in the first five minutes. It's an airport. I left surrounded by English speakers. I'd like to arrive surrounded by German speakers.
In other news, there is no other news because intensive German is occupying my life.
Rachel and I are watching the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica from miniseries to finish right now. We're only 6 or 7 episodes in but watching it, for me, the second time only serves to increase my appreciation for how well done the show was done. Yes, there were times when it seemed the stories sucked or that it was drifting away from it's original concept and yes, there was the ending but it was still a great show and I'm happy Rachel likes it and I get to watch it again with somebody. I love knowing everything and catching the hints and rumors of what's to come. Additionally, the new Stargate series will be starting in October. I still don't know what to make of this addition to the series. No matter what the producers of SG-1, then Atlantis, and now Universe have to say, I think they intentionally canceled Atlantis because they wanted to throw all their money into Universe. It pisses me off because for 2 years they ran two shows at once. If they really wanted Universe, they could have kept Atlantis and finished it off decently. Instead, we got hack writers for the last two seasons who didn't know a story from their dirty laundry. I could rant for a while but nobody wants to read that. In fact, I'm astonished you got to this sentence. Thank you.
Cheers for now!
July 22, 2009
July 7, 2009
How quickly can you learn German?
Hi everyone.
I've started my third week of summer intensive German (the whole first year of German in 9 weeks), which means that at the end of this week I will have completed the first quarter, equivalent to German 101. Wow. There have been five chapters worth of vocabulary each with about 100+ adjectives, prepositions, nouns, verbs, seperable verbs, and other kinds of words. Once again, I'm thankful for my better than average memory recall. It's incredible how much we cover every class period. We meet Monday through Friday for three hours each day and the time flies by. It's nothing short of astonishing and Rachel and I often wonder how slow normal 101 must be since we're not entirely overwhelmed with the amount we're learning.
(I believe that since I last wrote my social status has changed. Rachel is my beautiful girlfriend and we have been together for 2 months. Yay! Here is a picture of us at my Mom's house in Oregon next to the Columbia River. The land behind us and on the other side of the river is Washington.)
Anywhoo, plans are continuing to come together for our year long physics exchange to Justus Liebig Universität in Giessen, Germany. We have our plane tickets (complete with connection in Reykjavik, Iceland) and our acceptance letters. That's about it so far. No worries though because I'm sure we won't forget too much if both of us are thinking about what to bring. Unfortunately, Rachel and I think alike probably 90% of the time. Problem? Possibly but I'm not going to worry about it.
And now I must needs be getting back to meine Hausaufgaben (homework). Until next time....
Prost!
I've started my third week of summer intensive German (the whole first year of German in 9 weeks), which means that at the end of this week I will have completed the first quarter, equivalent to German 101. Wow. There have been five chapters worth of vocabulary each with about 100+ adjectives, prepositions, nouns, verbs, seperable verbs, and other kinds of words. Once again, I'm thankful for my better than average memory recall. It's incredible how much we cover every class period. We meet Monday through Friday for three hours each day and the time flies by. It's nothing short of astonishing and Rachel and I often wonder how slow normal 101 must be since we're not entirely overwhelmed with the amount we're learning.
(I believe that since I last wrote my social status has changed. Rachel is my beautiful girlfriend and we have been together for 2 months. Yay! Here is a picture of us at my Mom's house in Oregon next to the Columbia River. The land behind us and on the other side of the river is Washington.)
Anywhoo, plans are continuing to come together for our year long physics exchange to Justus Liebig Universität in Giessen, Germany. We have our plane tickets (complete with connection in Reykjavik, Iceland) and our acceptance letters. That's about it so far. No worries though because I'm sure we won't forget too much if both of us are thinking about what to bring. Unfortunately, Rachel and I think alike probably 90% of the time. Problem? Possibly but I'm not going to worry about it.And now I must needs be getting back to meine Hausaufgaben (homework). Until next time....
Prost!
April 22, 2009
Wold Update
Oh mercy! It's been over two months! Why did nobody say anything?! I just got done with my first legitimate all-nighter at school. I stayed up the whole night sitting at a table surrounded by friends and munchies and homework. I napped from 10-12:15 today after getting up at 6 yesterday. I begin with that so I can explain why I even have the time to blog right now. I still had homework that is due tomorrow that I just got done doing...at least for tonight. And since I still have a little bit of life left in me before I crash for (what I hope will be) restful sleep, I decided to come here and share as much of what I think is important that's happened in the past 2 months.
Where to begin? I've been accepted into a exchange program through the University of Washington to go and study physics (and other things) for 11 months in Giessen, Germany at the Justus-Leibig Universitat-Giessen. Wow, huh? A very good friend of mine is going along and we're going to pretty much have the most rockin' good time I think either of us may have ever had. I know I speak for myself at least. She's traveled off this continent before and is much more outgoing so she may not have as much of a shock as I do. I'm looking forward to sampling all the different foods...and beers. We're making plans for traveling around all of Europe, both together and on solo adventures. Now I can handle myself pretty well in a city like San Francisco or Seattle if I just get dumped in the middle of it somewhere. I could probably handle New York if I really concentrated. But a city in another country is I think going to be a lot different. Quite the learning curve.
This of course leads into a discussion of school. Summer courses will consist of one intensive German language class. It's the entire first year of German packed into 7 or 8 weeks. Needless to say, that'll be the only class I'm taking. Right now I'm taking 4 classes;
I've recently discovered the awesomeness of Pandora.com. If you put 2 or 3 artists in a playlist, you're going to get a pretty decent spread of similar music and I find it remarkable for finding all these songs I used to listen to on the radio when I was a kid. It's amazing. I put in Journey and Queen as my artists and I'm getting all sorts of other songs I recognize and new ones that I really enjoy. Same goes for my Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Brian Setzer Orchestra combo. Anyway, that was kind of random.
And with that sentence, I must say farewell again. I apologize but I am now crashing. I promise to blog more even though more and more events get added to my schedule book (which happens to be a moleskin(R)).
Cheers.
p.s. upcoming events I'm interested in:
Where to begin? I've been accepted into a exchange program through the University of Washington to go and study physics (and other things) for 11 months in Giessen, Germany at the Justus-Leibig Universitat-Giessen. Wow, huh? A very good friend of mine is going along and we're going to pretty much have the most rockin' good time I think either of us may have ever had. I know I speak for myself at least. She's traveled off this continent before and is much more outgoing so she may not have as much of a shock as I do. I'm looking forward to sampling all the different foods...and beers. We're making plans for traveling around all of Europe, both together and on solo adventures. Now I can handle myself pretty well in a city like San Francisco or Seattle if I just get dumped in the middle of it somewhere. I could probably handle New York if I really concentrated. But a city in another country is I think going to be a lot different. Quite the learning curve.
This of course leads into a discussion of school. Summer courses will consist of one intensive German language class. It's the entire first year of German packed into 7 or 8 weeks. Needless to say, that'll be the only class I'm taking. Right now I'm taking 4 classes;
- Astronomy 323 - Galaxies, Cosmology
- Astronomy 480 - Observing
- Physics 226 - Particles and Symmetries
- Physics 321 - Electromagnetism 1
I've recently discovered the awesomeness of Pandora.com. If you put 2 or 3 artists in a playlist, you're going to get a pretty decent spread of similar music and I find it remarkable for finding all these songs I used to listen to on the radio when I was a kid. It's amazing. I put in Journey and Queen as my artists and I'm getting all sorts of other songs I recognize and new ones that I really enjoy. Same goes for my Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Brian Setzer Orchestra combo. Anyway, that was kind of random.
And with that sentence, I must say farewell again. I apologize but I am now crashing. I promise to blog more even though more and more events get added to my schedule book (which happens to be a moleskin(R)).
Cheers.
p.s. upcoming events I'm interested in:
- Third Day Concert May 7th
- Seattle Beer Week May 7th-17th
- UW Undergraduate Symposium May 15th (I'm presenting. More on that later)
- Visiting Momma May 22nd-25th
January 31, 2009
Saturday Morning Musings
I'm at a local independent coffee shop right now called Gretchen's Place. Their Americanos aren't bad and I would recommend you come early when there aren't a lot of people. The table I'm typing on right now is single stem style with four base protrusions and it's wobbling, making my screen bobble with every slam of my fingers on the keyboard. Thus why I always prefer three legged or three-legged-protrusion-single-stem tables. And if you can't figure out why that makes a difference, then we have a problem.
I just collected 15 hours worth of data on the hour on 2 separate days for 13 different asteroids. So that comes out to (15*2*13) lines I put onto my computer and organized in a neat orderly fashion so that later today, after orchestra and Battlestar Galactica, I can convert some of the data into other units and do some easy math to find out some cool stuff that I'll use later on to do more cool stuff. But honestly, I fear I may be over my head this semester. But that's another story. Tests may be next week in all three of my primary classes, but today it's all research (since I haven't done any in about 10 days and that's bad of me).
I'm planning on using some of the portions of my tax return to buy a good size whiteboard. A wha? Yes, you read right. I'm going to buy a whiteboard and hang it on the wall in my room over my bed. I want to be able to do practice problems of math and physics without having to look for paper and pencil. I mean, it'll save the environment and I'll feel like a BA while writing there. There is something special about doing homework or practice on a large board. You can step back, hold the pen in your mouth or something, stare at the board and just think. It's great and I recommend it. Trev, that goes for you. Try translating Greek on a chalkboard and tell me it isn't fun.
Well, I finished my Americano and now have to head off to play Horn. It's sectionals today and so you're more exposed. I hope I don't suck. Until next time everyone. Cheers!
I just collected 15 hours worth of data on the hour on 2 separate days for 13 different asteroids. So that comes out to (15*2*13) lines I put onto my computer and organized in a neat orderly fashion so that later today, after orchestra and Battlestar Galactica, I can convert some of the data into other units and do some easy math to find out some cool stuff that I'll use later on to do more cool stuff. But honestly, I fear I may be over my head this semester. But that's another story. Tests may be next week in all three of my primary classes, but today it's all research (since I haven't done any in about 10 days and that's bad of me).
I'm planning on using some of the portions of my tax return to buy a good size whiteboard. A wha? Yes, you read right. I'm going to buy a whiteboard and hang it on the wall in my room over my bed. I want to be able to do practice problems of math and physics without having to look for paper and pencil. I mean, it'll save the environment and I'll feel like a BA while writing there. There is something special about doing homework or practice on a large board. You can step back, hold the pen in your mouth or something, stare at the board and just think. It's great and I recommend it. Trev, that goes for you. Try translating Greek on a chalkboard and tell me it isn't fun.
Well, I finished my Americano and now have to head off to play Horn. It's sectionals today and so you're more exposed. I hope I don't suck. Until next time everyone. Cheers!
January 27, 2009
Monday Night
No, not football
But tax filing
While drinking Chai tea with sugar and milk
Along the lines of homework,
Planning the week and then....
Just wondering if I should plan "my-time?"
You know, when you sit and do something
I don't have that. There's no time.
Gosh, has that screen loaded yet?
Typical. I'm just as impatient as everyone else.
Oh, and then I'm listening to Dave Matthews
And now I'm just talking.
But tax filing
with people by the giga-score
since the internets seem so slow.
While drinking Chai tea with sugar and milk
because I have so much to do
Along the lines of homework,
Planning the week and then....
Just wondering if I should plan "my-time?"
You know, when you sit and do something
you want to do?
I don't have that. There's no time.
Gosh, has that screen loaded yet?
Typical. I'm just as impatient as everyone else.
lame.
Oh, and then I'm listening to Dave Matthews
while working through integrals
of the type regular, triple, and contour.
And now I'm just talking.
Back to it!
January 18, 2009
As Promised...
So I promised a story last time and as I took a brief restroom break from my homework, I chanced to read in the magazine Astronomy a brief article regarding "dark flow." Dark flow is a term coined by a researcher whose team discovered something I think is one of the coolest things ever. Alexander Kashlinsky, an astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, and his team discovered that at least 700 massive galaxy clusters (a large number of galaxies relatively close together) are all moving as groups towards a single point in the sky!
Let me use a different example in case you didn't follow that. Imagine if 700 million people on Earth were all inexplicably pulled 20ft towards the Space Needle here in Seattle. It's something like that, only they keep moving. Can you imagine how crazy this is? At least 700 individual galactic clusters are all moving towards one point! It's hypothesized that there is a concentration of mass beyond the observable universe that is exercising a force on these clusters. It's rather beyond me the size of this mass you would have to have to be able to do all this. My mind is blown.
Kashlinsky named this phenomenon dark flow to reference dark energy and dark matter, two other great mysteries. Obviously of course, there is much research to do still and this might be a ginourmous coincidence. So, don't quote me. I just wanted to share an article.
Source: Astronomy January 2009 p.31
Let me use a different example in case you didn't follow that. Imagine if 700 million people on Earth were all inexplicably pulled 20ft towards the Space Needle here in Seattle. It's something like that, only they keep moving. Can you imagine how crazy this is? At least 700 individual galactic clusters are all moving towards one point! It's hypothesized that there is a concentration of mass beyond the observable universe that is exercising a force on these clusters. It's rather beyond me the size of this mass you would have to have to be able to do all this. My mind is blown.
Kashlinsky named this phenomenon dark flow to reference dark energy and dark matter, two other great mysteries. Obviously of course, there is much research to do still and this might be a ginourmous coincidence. So, don't quote me. I just wanted to share an article.
Source: Astronomy January 2009 p.31
January 2, 2009
Sed-a-give!!
Welcome everyone. I hate writing 9's so this year is already tainted. So it goes.
School is starting on Monday. Have I even purchased my books? No. Have I been keeping up with my studying? No. Am I totally doomed? Quite possibly. But I'm not worrying about it because it will work itself out. I need to take it easy while I still can. This quarter is gonna be hard. I'm taking two upper math classes, an astro computing class, and the second astro 300 level class on galaxies, of which I have no clue what things we'll learn there. Also, I'm continuing my research project on asteroids and will be devoting a minimum of three hours a week to that along with my orchestra commitments on Saturday. It's a good thing I'm getting up at 6 already.
Wow, but did you really want to know all that? Probably not but that's what a blog is for: to tell you all these wonderful things about me. Me me me. I feel so soiled right now with my presumtuous arrogance. I apologize. I will now entertain you with a story so you feel better about the time you've spent reading here.
...........um.........
How about I promise to tell a story next time? I can't think of one right now. I promise it'll be fantastic.
School is starting on Monday. Have I even purchased my books? No. Have I been keeping up with my studying? No. Am I totally doomed? Quite possibly. But I'm not worrying about it because it will work itself out. I need to take it easy while I still can. This quarter is gonna be hard. I'm taking two upper math classes, an astro computing class, and the second astro 300 level class on galaxies, of which I have no clue what things we'll learn there. Also, I'm continuing my research project on asteroids and will be devoting a minimum of three hours a week to that along with my orchestra commitments on Saturday. It's a good thing I'm getting up at 6 already.
Wow, but did you really want to know all that? Probably not but that's what a blog is for: to tell you all these wonderful things about me. Me me me. I feel so soiled right now with my presumtuous arrogance. I apologize. I will now entertain you with a story so you feel better about the time you've spent reading here.
...........um.........
How about I promise to tell a story next time? I can't think of one right now. I promise it'll be fantastic.
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