Phew...!

I am tired!

This has been a long week! Monday was depressing since I only handed in one problem, out of six, of the Electrodynamics homework. I did not had much time and the little time that I gave to it was spent mostly in staring at the piece of paper. I do not why, but I just felt stupid. The professor handed the solutions and they all see so easy now. Oh well! I already started to work on the next homework, and have two problems solved! I HAVE to do well to get through the class.

Grading has been horrible. I hate it!

The Mars Volta has a new album out, which is just awesome. I have been listening it non-stop, over and over and over.

I also started working on the string theory notes this week. Right now I am typing the part on the bosonic string action. It is cool.

Oh! Yeah... it was a good birthday... I am going to Boston on Saturday. Should be pretty good.

Routine

I guess I already have a pretty good picture of how my weekly routine is going to be for this semester. After spending most of Saturday at Dreamland, I went grocery shopping and cooked some "real" dinner that night.

Sunday was dedicated to grade lab reports. Man! I took to much time going through the first few. I hate working under those conditions. You cannot think clearly just wondering about all the homework you have to do for the next day while stuck reading about somebody's speculation on error in a measurement of a pendulum's period. Oh well. I spent all afternoon at my office until before 9:00 PM. I worked on the Electrodynamics problems, but was not able to finish all. I am used to not handing in all problems solved, but this cannot go on far. A third of my grade is being determined from the homework scores. The same thing happen with the Quantum Mechanics problem set, one (of two) problems was handed in blank. I really do not care if the professor thinks I am stupid because I did not handed in my "reasons" for not "solving" the problem. I just think that either you can figure it out, or you do not. I guess some sort of feedback is good so the professor has an idea where I got stuck. It turned out that there was a hint in many books and I did not checked them. I felt very stupid when I realized this. Oh well, now I am checking every book I have.

This week has been pretty rough. I was able to solve every problem of the Mechanics set, so that made me feel better. Electrodynamics is looking pretty nasty, but I already have one in the bag. And Quantum is not going to sneak on me again.

Friday....

Homework, homework, homeworks!!!

A full royal flush of problem sets is on the hand: Mechanics, Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory.

Mechanics problemas are about finding Lagrangians. I have not tried any yet, so I will start with that one first. I think I commented on some of the Electrodynamics problems previously. Right now I have completed two and have three "started". Quantum Mechanics has a simple one (in the sense that I remember a lot of bra-ket notation) that I already completed and the other one is still settlings down. I do not think I will even care about the QFT problems.

But maybe I will get bored grading lab reports tonight...

The bosonic string is just a toy...

The String Theory class is just AWESOME!

van Nieuwenhuiezen is lecturing the first part, introducing the bosonic string. I missed Friday's lecture, but on Monday all three professors had a shot at their interests on String Theory.

Peter is interested on Quantum Gravity, not a surprise from one of the persons who developed Supergravity. Martin is more into all the geometries generated from compactifications of extra dimensions. Warren pointed out the status of the theory as a toy for understanding yet-to-be-found models of nature. I lack 99.9999% of all the formalism of Quantum Field Theory and General Relativity, but I read the first part of Zwiebach's introductory book and am able to follow most of the lines of thought. I guess knowing names of things is not enough, after all it is all about the physics! (some which Feynman would had agreed). Anyways, Peter asked for somebody to volunteered to help type corrections to the notes he and Martin had written. I said I could do it. This is the "project". I can get somethings from this.

First, I am helping some guys with their work. That is cool. Second, I am working with notes on String Theory, so I should learn something from it. Third, I am getting paid! And fourth, it will help me know the professors more. It will take lots of time from my already busy schedule. But it will all be worth it. I am thinking of not attending the lectures anymore.

Fun, fun, fun!

Last weekend's worldline, 1

This past weekend I went to Boston to spent some time with my girlfriend. It was quite a trip from Stony Brook.

On Friday I had a TA meeting at 12:30 PM. It was sad that I missed the String Theory class, but I did not wanted to miss this meeting since they were going to cover lab basics and this week's experiment. Also, it was where the hours were distributed. I ended with a section on Mondays from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM and another on Tuesdays from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM with "office hours" on Wednesdays from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. So basically I will be quite busy during the first part of the week. Hopefully some homework can be done on the other part with lab report grading during the weekend. I have to think of some time for the "project".

At 1:45 PM I leaved the TA meeting and quickly rushed to the train station to catch the 2:00 PM train to Port Jefferson. It was fun to run towards the train station with all my bags. I had to cross to the other side to get tickets (which was not checked...) and then to the campus aside again to catch the train.

After 20 minutes I got into Port Jefferson and walked to the ferry port. It was a 20 minute-long-walk. The weather was not that bad, still it had been a long week and I was tired. The ferry was there when I got to the port. The boat departed with 15 minutes of lateness. I settled down and started to work on my brand new Electrodynamics problem set. The 5 problems seem tractable, I was able to work most of the first problem on index notation and vector products. The ferry trip was smooth, I did not felt dizzy which was a good thing.

The ferry started vibrating as it got close to Bridgeport. I hurried (once again) to the (other) train station. Yet once again the ticket machine was at the other side of where I was suppose to catch the train. Run, run, run! I got my tickets and when I came out there was a train at the track. I started running desperately. The train left and I felt really sad. The first thing that I thought was "Damn! My girlfriend is going to kill me!". But I checked on the time and it was 10 minutes before for my train. I was happy! It turned out that MY train was 15 minutes late. Oh well...

The train ride was nice. I continue working with my homework. It is funny the things that you hear around. The person seating behind me was talking on the phone about her house mates dishing her and leaving for a hotel. It was hilarious! She kept asking herself what would have gone wrong and what would have driven her friend away. Then a guy came to comfort her. That was kinda annoying, but I was able to work. Then that guy talked to somebody on the phone about not smoking pot for a while. He bragged about it REALLY loudly so people could listen that he smoked and he "did not cared about the laws". I hate when people talk about this things wanting to be cool. I drink now and them. I do not brag about how much or what I drink. It is stupid. Things do not make people. Oh well.

Meritime started around 8:00 PM! We wander around downtown Boston (after yet another train ride...) and had dinner at a nice Italian place. Man, I had a whole pizza with sausage and ham for myself. Yummy!

Stay tuned for "the return".

Classes, finally!

Today was my second day of classes.

Yesterday was amazing! First thing in the morning was Classical Mechanics with Prof. Likharev. Now I am not very fond of mechanics, but this course seems to be pretty good. I guess compared I get bored with the "boring" problems of mechanics. The professor started with a simple review of basic notions and definitions, but everything was from a different point of view than the usually taught. He is very lively.

After CM was Classical Electrodynamics. I got a little bored here, because the professor was following Jackson's approach and I had read some pages already. Still, I love electromagnetism and am looking forward to going through Jackson's book. The professor was also very friendly, worried about the date of the final exam (two days before Christmas!).

I took notes during class on a "draft" notebook I use for calculations. It was embarrassing to realize on the morning of the first day of classes that I had not bought any notebooks. After CE I went to the bookstore and was not disappointed by the already-expected long line. I tried the Seawolves Marketplace and got two 5-subject notebooks. Having minutes to spare, I had an apple outside the physics building.

Then it was time for strings! Around 12:50 PM I went to the classroom for the String Theory course. There was more people than I thought. Warren Siegel came early and stood by the door. I went inside of what was really an informal meeting room and tried sitting as far from the action as possible. I am auditing the class, so I want more "serious" persons to be closer to the action. Peter van Nieuwenhuizen came and introduced the class with a derivation of the Nambu-Goto string action. It was majestic! The best thing was that I could follow it because I have read some of this in Zwiebach's. Then it followed Polyakov's string action.

Just awesome!

The last day of the summer

I am actually happy that classes are starting this Wednesday. Sadly that means that loads of work will come too.

Saturday was basically rain day. I stayed in my room most of the day reading. Sunday was grocery day. I went to the supermarket and got stuff for my favorite beef dish: Carne Guisada. I made it in evening. It was yummy! And a bit salty too...

Monday, Labor Day, was beach day!

Me and my buddies from the apartment walked to West Meadow Beach, close to the university. It was nice but cold to my Caribbean water taste. We saw a HUGE crab. I took my QFT book and read on free field theory.

It was a nice, long walk around the meadow. Now I should rest my feet. My toes are killing me!

More placement...

The week is comes to an end with an emotional bang.

Today I took the SPEAK test. It is about English language proficiency and it is oral. As always, silly questions aimed at inducing a hemorrhage of verbal expressions to test one's ability of pronunciation, fluency, etc. My score placed along the borderline of taking advanced classes (I guess in English...) or just passing. I was really sad to hear that I could be adding another class to my already busy schedule. I am planing on taking three core courses (Classical Mechanics, Classical Electrodynamics and Quantum Mechanics), one seminar, one colloquium and the teaching assignment (two lab sections). The examiner concluded with the English class recommendation, but suggested a second opinion. I could take the English classes, but...

... I want to catch up with Strings and Fields! If I am going to become a particle theory student, I have to work on my fluency in string- and quantum field-stuff. The way the graduate program works is that I should start research by the beginning of my third year. I just cannot sit back and expect to take the respective classes on Strings and Quantum Field Theory (not to mention Relativity...). I should take the classes, but if I already have basic knowledge in the field (pun intended!) then I could start choosing a research topic by my second year.

I have been laying back (and blogging and reading other blogs) to much. This cannot continue. I need a major update to my routine. Knowing this does not make things any better (but it will make me feel more sorry...), I need actions. So I am going to start reading my books. I am going to put together the ideas from A First Course in String Theory and Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell. Work out problems. Etc. I was planning on attending the Field and String courses, but it will all depend on my schedule. I need to do well in the courses I'll be taking.

In other news, today was also the second part of the placement exams. This time: Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics. Just like last time, I was only able to tackle a part of a problem from the QM test. It was about neutrino mixing. Given the Hamiltonian operator I was able to find the eigenvalues and I started to find the eigenvectors. But that problem was not going to be enough. I needed more to pass the test, so I decided to flee the scene. I will keep both exam sets and I will try them again at the end of the semester.