Not going to happen. Well, I did not expected much anyway. Today I had the first two placement exams in the Physics Department. I read and reread all the problems and ended up completing the first part (of three) of the second Classical Mechanics problem (of two). The E&M were about material that I had not seen yet, so I am looking forward to using Jackson. Now I am reading Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell. The cover of this book is where I got the idea for the title of this blog. Path integrals!
31 August 2006
29 August 2006
My name on SPIRES!
Physics Orientations 1
Today I finally stepped inside the Physics building! :-)
The graduate orientations are being held during this week, today was the first part of the Physics Department orientations. The director of the graduate program gave us a very warm and nice welcome to the department. We even had breakfast and lunch provided! Basically there were talks on lots of graduate issues including placement exams and teaching assistantships. I met many new students, mainly from China. Anyways, I already have stuff to do...
(Added - Something embarrassing happen during one of the talks: my belly made a really LOUD sound, like a fart. I am afraid this was my first impression on people... Oh well... I should not have had that piece of sandwich...)
The graduate orientations are being held during this week, today was the first part of the Physics Department orientations. The director of the graduate program gave us a very warm and nice welcome to the department. We even had breakfast and lunch provided! Basically there were talks on lots of graduate issues including placement exams and teaching assistantships. I met many new students, mainly from China. Anyways, I already have stuff to do...
(Added - Something embarrassing happen during one of the talks: my belly made a really LOUD sound, like a fart. I am afraid this was my first impression on people... Oh well... I should not have had that piece of sandwich...)
28 August 2006
The dark shower
On Thursday morning, while I was taking my clothes off, the light in the shower room flickered and died. I carried on, opening the door and looking where my soap and shampoo were and dialing a nice temperature for the water. I had no problem showering in the dark. I posted a work-order and it will take a while for it to be fix. Sadly the bulb is not accessible and it is one of those long tubes that nobody knows where to buy, so we cannot fix it on our own.
My other house mates are annoyed, of course. All of them are showering with the door open. Maybe I am to shy, but I have been showering with the door close. Basically I located the soap and shampoo and just make slow movements. Everything works fine. The weird thing is that I have found myself showering with my eyes closed! Somehow it just feels more natural. I guess I have a mental picture of the room, so I have an idea where things are an feel confident about it. I wont say that I have achieved enlightenment or something like that, but it feels different. I guess I'm the only one not looking forward for a new light bulb in the shower room.
My other house mates are annoyed, of course. All of them are showering with the door open. Maybe I am to shy, but I have been showering with the door close. Basically I located the soap and shampoo and just make slow movements. Everything works fine. The weird thing is that I have found myself showering with my eyes closed! Somehow it just feels more natural. I guess I have a mental picture of the room, so I have an idea where things are an feel confident about it. I wont say that I have achieved enlightenment or something like that, but it feels different. I guess I'm the only one not looking forward for a new light bulb in the shower room.
27 August 2006
Crap Sunday
I have enough reasons to write a best selling book on bad days.
Today I woke up and shower like always. Then I made a really yummy set of French toast. After breakfast I decided to go shopping but since I was not sure about the bus times, instead I watched a movie: Donnie Darko. It is a really good movie. Around 1:40 PM I headed to the bus stop.
It was a long wait, just like yesterday but this time under the rain. I had been sneezing occasionally during the morning and at this point the sneezing had become more frequent. At the bus stop there were a couple of new graduate students. One from India asked me if I was also from India. It is funny because yesterday two other persons asked me the same think. This time the guy said that from a certain angle I looked like a friend of his who goes to Stony Brook too. So now I have a Hindu twin...
An hour passed and the bus did not came. More graduate students came, these were Chinese. One of them was a new physics students, who told me he was called *insert name here*, but U (You) was alright. U and his friend took the other bus to the library and I stayed behind waiting for the Mall bus. My sneezing had become frequent and I had lots of blobs coming from my nose.
My girlfriend called at the worst moment. First she did not had signal so I could not hear her. Then she call me back and I was in the process of getting to another bus and learning what happen to the Mall bus. I talked to her but I clearly had to pay attention to where was I being drop off. I tried calling her after the bus dropped me but at the same time she answered another student asked me for "the quad" and the Mall bus showed up, while I was struggling with my umbrella. I really wanted to talk to my girlfriend. Instead, I was in the last row of a hot bus with all my sinuses angry at me.
I got off at the supermarket. I felt light and disoriented, but was able to get all the items in my piece-of-paper-of-a-list. With three bags of groceries in my hands and two in my backpack I headed to the bookstore. Of course, the way to the bookstore was a bit risky having to walk on the street in the middle of a rainy afternoon. But my search on the bookstore was short: I knew what I wanted.
My reward: The Feynman Lectures of Physics. Finally! Some physics in this blog! I have been reading Genius: The life and science of Richard Feynman. It is one of the best stories I ever read, and to think that it tells the life of a real person (who worked at the Manhattan Project and developed interesting diagrams for Quantum Electrodynamics among other things) makes it really amazing. But all the joy of celebrating Feynman almost vanished when the cashier's machine read $195. I bought it anyways, I had a gift card from my girlfriend's parents and the books really are worth the other part.
Another long wait at the bookstore. When the bus finally showed up and I got in driver told me that "there was no bus stop there". Oh well! I humbly apologized, but I really wanted to get back to my apartment and also did not felt like walking under the rain (again) with my new acquisitions. The ride back "home" was alright. I took a nap when I got to my room and then read some of the first volume of the Lectures. I am still feeling tired and congested but some Feynman will cure it...
Today I woke up and shower like always. Then I made a really yummy set of French toast. After breakfast I decided to go shopping but since I was not sure about the bus times, instead I watched a movie: Donnie Darko. It is a really good movie. Around 1:40 PM I headed to the bus stop.
It was a long wait, just like yesterday but this time under the rain. I had been sneezing occasionally during the morning and at this point the sneezing had become more frequent. At the bus stop there were a couple of new graduate students. One from India asked me if I was also from India. It is funny because yesterday two other persons asked me the same think. This time the guy said that from a certain angle I looked like a friend of his who goes to Stony Brook too. So now I have a Hindu twin...
An hour passed and the bus did not came. More graduate students came, these were Chinese. One of them was a new physics students, who told me he was called *insert name here*, but U (You) was alright. U and his friend took the other bus to the library and I stayed behind waiting for the Mall bus. My sneezing had become frequent and I had lots of blobs coming from my nose.
My girlfriend called at the worst moment. First she did not had signal so I could not hear her. Then she call me back and I was in the process of getting to another bus and learning what happen to the Mall bus. I talked to her but I clearly had to pay attention to where was I being drop off. I tried calling her after the bus dropped me but at the same time she answered another student asked me for "the quad" and the Mall bus showed up, while I was struggling with my umbrella. I really wanted to talk to my girlfriend. Instead, I was in the last row of a hot bus with all my sinuses angry at me.
I got off at the supermarket. I felt light and disoriented, but was able to get all the items in my piece-of-paper-of-a-list. With three bags of groceries in my hands and two in my backpack I headed to the bookstore. Of course, the way to the bookstore was a bit risky having to walk on the street in the middle of a rainy afternoon. But my search on the bookstore was short: I knew what I wanted.
My reward: The Feynman Lectures of Physics. Finally! Some physics in this blog! I have been reading Genius: The life and science of Richard Feynman. It is one of the best stories I ever read, and to think that it tells the life of a real person (who worked at the Manhattan Project and developed interesting diagrams for Quantum Electrodynamics among other things) makes it really amazing. But all the joy of celebrating Feynman almost vanished when the cashier's machine read $195. I bought it anyways, I had a gift card from my girlfriend's parents and the books really are worth the other part.
Another long wait at the bookstore. When the bus finally showed up and I got in driver told me that "there was no bus stop there". Oh well! I humbly apologized, but I really wanted to get back to my apartment and also did not felt like walking under the rain (again) with my new acquisitions. The ride back "home" was alright. I took a nap when I got to my room and then read some of the first volume of the Lectures. I am still feeling tired and congested but some Feynman will cure it...
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