30 June 2007
25 June 2007
Been off...
I have been off the books all this time with the visit from Meri and Ann. Even today that I was by myself. I woke up around 10:12 AM and took a shower, made some oatmeal and checked my feeds on Google's Reader. Then I headed to my office where I bought the bus tickets for the trip to Amherst online and then went to the post office to get boxes to ship some stuff for Meri's parents in California. When I got back to my office I decided to recycle all the used paper in the lab notebooks of my past class. I got a nice set of empty sheets of paper that I can use for calculations.
Most of the blogging online now is about Strings 2007, the annual conference about new developments in the field of string theory and related topics. I just want to say something about this: I was keeping an eye on the Strings 07 poster at the department's board and I guess someone took it. I wanted that poster! Oh well... The main buzz is about Ed Witten's latest paper on 2 + 1 gravity. Clifford writes that he not attending the conference might be a sign of some exciting new development being announce this year. Let us cross our fingers.
I should stop blogging about something I do not even understand and try to read something that could at least put me on the track to some day reach this understanding. With the trip to Amherst this week, and with friends visiting next weekend all seems a bit hopeless. I am going to try to finish the chapter on manifolds and see if I can cover the one on Riemannian geometry.
Most of the blogging online now is about Strings 2007, the annual conference about new developments in the field of string theory and related topics. I just want to say something about this: I was keeping an eye on the Strings 07 poster at the department's board and I guess someone took it. I wanted that poster! Oh well... The main buzz is about Ed Witten's latest paper on 2 + 1 gravity. Clifford writes that he not attending the conference might be a sign of some exciting new development being announce this year. Let us cross our fingers.
I should stop blogging about something I do not even understand and try to read something that could at least put me on the track to some day reach this understanding. With the trip to Amherst this week, and with friends visiting next weekend all seems a bit hopeless. I am going to try to finish the chapter on manifolds and see if I can cover the one on Riemannian geometry.
Some NYC exploring, finally
Finally I can say I have explore (a bit of) NYC. My loving girlfriend and her sister came on last Thursday and stayed with me at Stony Brook.
On Friday we took the LIRR train to Penn Station. We started by heading out of Penn Station looking for the Empire State Building. After mistakenly pointing to the wrong antenna, we "came across" the tallest building in the city. It was pretty impressive. I had been here before, probably like ten years ago, so I had forgotten how tall it looks. Then we headed toward Grand Central and the Chrysler Building. We walked by the New York Public Library, which looked pretty nice so I might return there by myself to read some mathematics or physics. On fifth avenue we looked for a bagel place, but instead settled down for a cafe that was close to the Museum of Modern Art, which was our main target. At the cafe I had a croissant sandwich with imported ham and Swiss cheese with some pesto pasta salad on the side. It was better than I expected.
The MoMa was pretty nice. The first thing that we saw was a very tall wall full of cartoon-ish drawings with a political attitude. We wandered around the different floors. The most boring was the floor on Design and Architecture. It was annoying that The Persistence of Memory by Dalí was out on tour. It will not be back until mid 2008. The Picasso paintings were nice at least. I really like Picasso since he explore the concept of viewing something from all points of view at the same time. I think that in his book Hyperspace, Michio Kaku discusses that just like a three-dimensional being can observe all of "space" on a two-dimensional piece of paper, a hyper-being living on a four-dimensional world would be able to see all perspective of a three-dimensional world.
Anyways, after the MoMa we walked to the toy store F.A.O. Schwartz and then through Central Park. The park was pretty nice, we walked through the south-east corner towards the mid-west part, catching the train on 72nd street to finally returned to Penn Station and catch the train back to Stony Brook.
On Saturday we started by heading to 79th street to get some bagels at the nearby H&H. The service was a bit rude, since I had to repeat the lady the list of bagels I wanted many times and to top it all they did not accepted debit cards. Nevertheless, the bagels were good. H&H is not a sit-down place, so we headed outside with no napkins or even a knife for our bagels. I had an everything bagel, same as my girlfriend's sister Ann. Merideth had a plain bagel. For home I bought two poppy seed (which are becoming my favorite bagel now...), two everything, two plain and one pumpernickel. After bagels we headed to a Starbucks for drinks. After all that w hoped on the 3 line of the subway downtown to South Ferry. We realized that we needed to be on the 1 line so we got off at Time Square and took the 1 that came behind us. It turned out that because of constructions the 1 is not going down to the South Ferry so we had to change at 4th street for a 2/3 train down to Chamber street and there we took a bus to the ferry. It was all annoying because of the sense of slow moving. By the time we got to the ferry for the Statute of Liberty all the boats for that day were sold and they were selling tickets for the next day trips. That was also depressing, but my company reacted well and instead we wandered around Battery Park and watch the street performers The Positive Brothers. They were pretty good, besides some technical problems with their audio and some out-of-the-hand jokes like expressing the desire for making an Oreo with one person from the crowd. Still they got one dollar from my wallet.
After this we had a fruit break where I had an orange, and literally came across the insides of a very nice looking building when I suggested to visit the bathrooms of the National Museum of the American Indian which was previously the U.S. Customs House. This museum is not part of the Smithsonian system, and it looked a lot like the ones in D.C. The small bit we saw was very empty, but the security guards at the entrance were really nice. We checked out Wall street, where we saw the New York Stock Exchange and the building where George Washington took the oath as the first president of the U.S. I wanted to find this place since it appears during the end sequence of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. After Wall street we took the subway to Spring street, where we had a few slices of pizza from nearby Lombardi's. This place claims to be the first pizzeria in the U.S. It was truly great pizza, we had the traditional Margherita. Very yummy and tasty!
We headed to the Empire State Building after the pizza. The line was OK, but it was annoying all the stuff they are trying to sell you while you wait for the elevator. They even take a picture of you. The view from the top was spectacular, of course. This is the highest point in the city, since September 11th, 2001. After the view we sat down in front of the public library and then headed across Time Square to for the train to Penn Station.
It was all fun. I might go by myself at some point. Maybe next week since I have booked a trip to Amherst, MA on this Wednesday returning on Saturday to visit my friend Michael. Should be fun. Meri and her sister left on Sunday afternoon to London where they will start a trip along Europe for a three weeks. My girlfriend called around noon to tell me she made it fine to the hostel and that it was a bit cold. I told her that envy-green was my favorite color.
On Friday we took the LIRR train to Penn Station. We started by heading out of Penn Station looking for the Empire State Building. After mistakenly pointing to the wrong antenna, we "came across" the tallest building in the city. It was pretty impressive. I had been here before, probably like ten years ago, so I had forgotten how tall it looks. Then we headed toward Grand Central and the Chrysler Building. We walked by the New York Public Library, which looked pretty nice so I might return there by myself to read some mathematics or physics. On fifth avenue we looked for a bagel place, but instead settled down for a cafe that was close to the Museum of Modern Art, which was our main target. At the cafe I had a croissant sandwich with imported ham and Swiss cheese with some pesto pasta salad on the side. It was better than I expected.
The MoMa was pretty nice. The first thing that we saw was a very tall wall full of cartoon-ish drawings with a political attitude. We wandered around the different floors. The most boring was the floor on Design and Architecture. It was annoying that The Persistence of Memory by Dalí was out on tour. It will not be back until mid 2008. The Picasso paintings were nice at least. I really like Picasso since he explore the concept of viewing something from all points of view at the same time. I think that in his book Hyperspace, Michio Kaku discusses that just like a three-dimensional being can observe all of "space" on a two-dimensional piece of paper, a hyper-being living on a four-dimensional world would be able to see all perspective of a three-dimensional world.
Anyways, after the MoMa we walked to the toy store F.A.O. Schwartz and then through Central Park. The park was pretty nice, we walked through the south-east corner towards the mid-west part, catching the train on 72nd street to finally returned to Penn Station and catch the train back to Stony Brook.
On Saturday we started by heading to 79th street to get some bagels at the nearby H&H. The service was a bit rude, since I had to repeat the lady the list of bagels I wanted many times and to top it all they did not accepted debit cards. Nevertheless, the bagels were good. H&H is not a sit-down place, so we headed outside with no napkins or even a knife for our bagels. I had an everything bagel, same as my girlfriend's sister Ann. Merideth had a plain bagel. For home I bought two poppy seed (which are becoming my favorite bagel now...), two everything, two plain and one pumpernickel. After bagels we headed to a Starbucks for drinks. After all that w hoped on the 3 line of the subway downtown to South Ferry. We realized that we needed to be on the 1 line so we got off at Time Square and took the 1 that came behind us. It turned out that because of constructions the 1 is not going down to the South Ferry so we had to change at 4th street for a 2/3 train down to Chamber street and there we took a bus to the ferry. It was all annoying because of the sense of slow moving. By the time we got to the ferry for the Statute of Liberty all the boats for that day were sold and they were selling tickets for the next day trips. That was also depressing, but my company reacted well and instead we wandered around Battery Park and watch the street performers The Positive Brothers. They were pretty good, besides some technical problems with their audio and some out-of-the-hand jokes like expressing the desire for making an Oreo with one person from the crowd. Still they got one dollar from my wallet.
After this we had a fruit break where I had an orange, and literally came across the insides of a very nice looking building when I suggested to visit the bathrooms of the National Museum of the American Indian which was previously the U.S. Customs House. This museum is not part of the Smithsonian system, and it looked a lot like the ones in D.C. The small bit we saw was very empty, but the security guards at the entrance were really nice. We checked out Wall street, where we saw the New York Stock Exchange and the building where George Washington took the oath as the first president of the U.S. I wanted to find this place since it appears during the end sequence of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. After Wall street we took the subway to Spring street, where we had a few slices of pizza from nearby Lombardi's. This place claims to be the first pizzeria in the U.S. It was truly great pizza, we had the traditional Margherita. Very yummy and tasty!
We headed to the Empire State Building after the pizza. The line was OK, but it was annoying all the stuff they are trying to sell you while you wait for the elevator. They even take a picture of you. The view from the top was spectacular, of course. This is the highest point in the city, since September 11th, 2001. After the view we sat down in front of the public library and then headed across Time Square to for the train to Penn Station.
It was all fun. I might go by myself at some point. Maybe next week since I have booked a trip to Amherst, MA on this Wednesday returning on Saturday to visit my friend Michael. Should be fun. Meri and her sister left on Sunday afternoon to London where they will start a trip along Europe for a three weeks. My girlfriend called around noon to tell me she made it fine to the hostel and that it was a bit cold. I told her that envy-green was my favorite color.
19 June 2007
So far into the summer
Yesterday I just got back from two weeks worth of vacation visiting my family and friends in Puerto Rico. After procrastinating during the first week, I am happy to say that during the second week I was able to go out and do stuff. I went to Playa El Combate, a beach in Cabo Rojo, close to my hometown Lajas. The water was so nice. I wanted to just float all day. After this past winter I was really looking forward to the Puertorrican beaches. With my siblings I went to see Pirates 3 and with a friend I saw Rise of the Silver Surfer. I guess it is the summer of sequels. I did not had high expectations regarding any of these two movies, but I am please with both in the sense that they entertained me. [With a small exception in FF2 when Mr. Fantastic mentions the Tachyon Pulse... but that was not that bad...] I also attended the wedding of one of my friends, José Emilio, who married his long time girlfriend Miriel.
I found that some relatives where having more health-related issues. My cousin had a baby boy on last October and since then baby Edwin has grown a lot. Combined with the wedding, all this made me feel really old. I mean, serious stuff is going on around me now, deaths, births, and even weddings of friends. I must confess that watching my friend and his (now) wife in their wedding attires made me feel weird. To me their still two young persons who just finished high school. Well, the truth is that I finished high school 5 years ago. A lot of things have happen since then.
Before leaving to Puerto Rico I spent one week with my girlfriend in Wellesley. She finished her undergraduate education in physics this past spring at Wellesley College. I am really proud of her :-) she got a physics prize and was offer membership to two honor societies. I always said she is the smart one in the family. Which family? This is another sign of my age, I am thinking of marrying her and leaving together! There are some details that have to be figured out before, but we are working on that.
I stopped reading Srednicki's book on QFT and started Ryder's version. On my way to Puerto Rico I started reading Nakahara's book on geometry and topology. I tried reading it before, but now it makes more sense. So far I skimmed through the first two chapters and read a bit on chapter 3 on homology groups and also read a bit on chapter 5 on manifolds.
While at PR I also finished reading the biography/memoir of John Archibald Wheller. It was a nice read; a combination of personal stories about meetings with great physicist such as Bohr and Einstein, and how Wheller developed important concepts such as geons and black holes. The first thing I did when I came back was to download the article on geons from the APS website, using the university's account.
Speaking of the university, Stony Brook is like a ghost place this days. Today I walked to the mail room to pick up some packages. I had to walked through one of the quads. Maybe there is really nobody there, since it looks like they are refurnishing the rooms. But really, it is kind of eerie walking through the plaza. It reminded me of last summer when I visited the student union looking for the ATM and found the building completely desolated. Summer classes have already started, so I guess there are not that much people around. Or maybe they are staying elsewhere. Or maybe I just do not go out to often. I suspect the latter to be more correct than the former...
I found that some relatives where having more health-related issues. My cousin had a baby boy on last October and since then baby Edwin has grown a lot. Combined with the wedding, all this made me feel really old. I mean, serious stuff is going on around me now, deaths, births, and even weddings of friends. I must confess that watching my friend and his (now) wife in their wedding attires made me feel weird. To me their still two young persons who just finished high school. Well, the truth is that I finished high school 5 years ago. A lot of things have happen since then.
Before leaving to Puerto Rico I spent one week with my girlfriend in Wellesley. She finished her undergraduate education in physics this past spring at Wellesley College. I am really proud of her :-) she got a physics prize and was offer membership to two honor societies. I always said she is the smart one in the family. Which family? This is another sign of my age, I am thinking of marrying her and leaving together! There are some details that have to be figured out before, but we are working on that.
I stopped reading Srednicki's book on QFT and started Ryder's version. On my way to Puerto Rico I started reading Nakahara's book on geometry and topology. I tried reading it before, but now it makes more sense. So far I skimmed through the first two chapters and read a bit on chapter 3 on homology groups and also read a bit on chapter 5 on manifolds.
While at PR I also finished reading the biography/memoir of John Archibald Wheller. It was a nice read; a combination of personal stories about meetings with great physicist such as Bohr and Einstein, and how Wheller developed important concepts such as geons and black holes. The first thing I did when I came back was to download the article on geons from the APS website, using the university's account.
Speaking of the university, Stony Brook is like a ghost place this days. Today I walked to the mail room to pick up some packages. I had to walked through one of the quads. Maybe there is really nobody there, since it looks like they are refurnishing the rooms. But really, it is kind of eerie walking through the plaza. It reminded me of last summer when I visited the student union looking for the ATM and found the building completely desolated. Summer classes have already started, so I guess there are not that much people around. Or maybe they are staying elsewhere. Or maybe I just do not go out to often. I suspect the latter to be more correct than the former...
18 June 2007
12 June 2007
Tis a bit sad
I think it is best for me to stop trying to blog on that one Wordpress blog. I should not spent so much time blogging, and besides what I wanted to do might had been a good idea but I need more time now to expand it properly...
07 June 2007
In the heat... for a while
The weather here in Puerto Rico is pretty hot! I have been reading John Archibald Wheeler's biography. It has been a fun read, with some geometry on the side...
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