World in Progress
May. 19th, 2008
03:39 pm - One down
I think I did okay. Not as good as I wanted, better than I did on the mid-terms.
Either that or I have no clue what's going on.
I do know that I want me some Gaussian drugs for my Gaussian pillbox.
One pill makes you normal/
And one pill makes you null/
But the one that Carl gives you/
Only tells you if you're full--
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sillyMay. 17th, 2008
01:07 pm - It has begun
Knee-deep in E&M. The final is Monday.
First "OHMIGOD I HAVE A TEST AND I'M NOT READY FOR IT" dream was Wednesday night.
Here we go....
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anxiousMay. 11th, 2008
12:45 pm - One down
My sweet mathematician has to okay my article (basically, say that I didn't misrepresent his work). He had one minor fix. Other than that, he said, "It is a charming and well-written
piece...I like the article very much." (Well, except for really short sentences, which I consider okay in their place. We may have to agree to disagree. Except--I didn't think I used many. There's one sentence in particular that I broke up based on a certain person's edits. Which goes to show the origin of all evil in this world.)
So that means I'm done with one class, since that article is our final. Yay!
I don't know if this is a good or bad thing, but I always end up feeling extremely sympathetic towards my subjects. I don't do hatchet jobs.
Heh. "Charming." I don't know if I've ever had something described as "charming" before. I think I like it.
May. 8th, 2008
11:02 am - Just sayin'
Snurched from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
wheatland_press:
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amusedMay. 6th, 2008
06:15 pm - Okay, so I'm a snob.
You know that science writing teacher who doesn't know anything about physics or astronomy? Or math, apparently.
I had about four different slants for the article. We both went for the math as art slant. I asked her yesterday if my title was okay (yeah, titles are up for grabs, I know) and she said she didn't remember it. I said, "Not Euclid Alone." She just looked at me. I said, "It's based on a line from a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay." She said, "And I suppose this Euclid is a big math guy."
I ask you. What am I to say to that?
May. 4th, 2008
10:55 pm - There's no excuse.
I think I hate horse racing now.
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angryApr. 29th, 2008
01:49 pm - A valuable learning experience, but not in a good way.
I'm having a grand time in my science writing class. I have decided that science writing is a field in which the practitioners get dessert first. However--
My instructor is a bit of a problem. Not that she's not a perfectly nice lady--she is. And not that she's not also not a competent science writer. To be honest, I have no idea. Never read anything by her. However, she was an editor for Science News for several years, which must mean something. However--
She makes no bones about that fact that she knows no astronomy or physics or math, and I suspect she doesn't really like them. She wanted me to define "cosmologist" in an article expressly written for an Astronomy Magazine-level audience, fer cryin' out loud. She is not my audience, nor would I normally be writing for something she's editing. HOWEVER--
Our final assignment, and essentially the lion's share of our grade, is an article for the College of Science and Engineering's yearly alumni magazine. So she *is* my editor. And she's also my teacher. I'm writing about a mathematician.
Not necessarily a disaster, but I have a bad feeling about this. She's asking me to nuke something which is rather central to the theme she wants me to pursue. Granted, I do understand that her not getting it is my fault, and my rough draft was rather scattered and overlong. We are required to turn in three drafts, and for the next one I'll keep what she wants me to nuke and do a better job explaining why it's relevant. If she still me to dump it after that, I'll--well, I'll see when I get there.
But, stuck as I am with an non-physics type as both editor *and* teacher, I'm feeling rather between a rock and a hard place. Plus the mathematician is a sweetie and I want to do a good job on this.
Maybe what I'm really peeved about is her accusation that I'm writing to sound smart instead of to help other people understand. That *really* pissed me off, actually. I honestly don't believe that an article written expressly for a specific market has to be understandable to people with no interest in that market. Plus this article is supposed to be written for a publication directed towards people with science and engineering degrees and she said, "Don't assume any math." WTF?
Anyway, I do understand that it's my ultimate responsibility to get through to her, but in this case--she's not my audience, and she's standing between me and people who *are* my audience.
I know, I know, these are special circumstances and I should just consider this an opportunity to try to win her over. But--it feels weird. Off, somehow.
Thanks for letting me vent. The math guy *is* a sweetie and I've been having a good time. It would just be nice to have a good time writing the article, too.
BTW, Sarah, she's nixed my quotes, so--thank you anyway. *sigh*
annoyedApr. 19th, 2008
09:48 am - Oh, Great LJ Hivemind--The Math Poll
What makes mathematics beautiful?
This should be a poll, but to be honest the only choice I'd know to include would be, "Something else discussed in comments."
Say whatever you want, up to and including, "'Three is a Magic Number' from Schoolhouse Rock makes me cry."
(Of course, "Hey, Little Twelvetoes" nudged me towards SF, so that's not a bad answer....)
If you know any rocket scientists or other techy types, perhaps you could point them this way.
Thank you much.
ETA: It occurred to me I should also say that if you think math sucks, feel free to expound upon that, as well.
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curiousApr. 17th, 2008
08:25 pm - So who's the extremophile, here?
( A quickie trip report kind of blorped out onto the screen, with far too many parenthetical remarks, but at least I got it done. And it has caves. And cute Australians. )
That's about it--still catching up with some stuff. I still have to write about my mathematician, too. I want to go play in the caves again, though.
Apr. 10th, 2008
10:28 am - Catchphrases overheard in the desert
Spoken by biologists on a field expedition.
Jargon award: "denudation by aeolian transport."
Pith award: "Biology will win."
My Electricity and Magnetism mid-term tomorrow is going to tromp me, I can tell you, so more later.
ETA: One of our guys has already put up some pictures. Check out the lava tube ones. Tres cool! (I'm going to have to depend on the kindness of others for more cave photos; no way was I taking Gary's camera down there to slam against a rock.)
http://picasaweb.google.com/billt4/Spac
Laplace, Poisson and Legendre, oh my!
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geekyApr. 6th, 2008
12:27 am - Outta here tomorrow
Time to go to the desert. Probably no access until I get back. The research center has wireless but I have no laptop. Gasp.
Have fun, be good, and let's all work on being extremophiles.
excitedMar. 29th, 2008
12:09 am - Oh Great LJ Overmind--
Can anybody recommend any hard SF with a plot that's driven to a great degree by theoretical mathematics?
Thanks--
Addendum by me: Look what I found! Mathematical Fiction Homepage.
Got me some poking around to do.
curiousMar. 25th, 2008
10:35 pm - A question--
I've been doing some copy-editing for our friend's kung fu magazine (KungfuMagazine.com--Joe Bob Briggs says, "Check it out!") and I just finished a grueling piece that was more editing than copy-editing (which we have permission to do).
Can anyone tell me why an article translated from the German--or maybe by a German guy whose English is not very good--would be harder to understand than Chinglish?
Is it something about German? Something about Chinglish? Something about me?
Mar. 22nd, 2008
11:32 am - Public Announcement
SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
happyMar. 16th, 2008
10:39 am - A very, very, very overdue post
Last year I attended the very first Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop in Laramie, Wyoming, and had a hell of a time. Applications are now open at the website for the 2008 workshop, and I urge all SF writers (because we all know that SF writers are always up for a hell of a time) to apply. (amysisson, you know you want to.)
The workshop consisted of a crash course in the coolness of the universe, with a special emphasis on how you can accurately portray that coolness in your writing. The instructors were eminently qualified: Mike Brotherton, a professor at the University of Wyoming and an SF writer himself, Jerry Oltion, award-winning SF writer and astro-geek, and Jim Verley, who is too modest to have a web page but who is an expert in science education and has a fine appreciation of the merits of good music and lasers.
Add to this the fact that I was surrounded by like-minded folks (SF writers) also having a hell of a time, we got to see cool telescopes (I left my heart at WIRO, and finding out that much of it is painted yellow is worth its weight in verisimilitude), we got to see even cooler planets and stars, and we got to mercilessly jeer Bruce Willis *and* Ben Affleck (animal crackers, anyone?)--well, you can do the math. The ideas were flying so fast they blue-shifted past my brain.
Go. Sign up now. Any questions, ask 'em in comments.
Mar. 4th, 2008
10:28 am - An update and a question for the geeks among us
Update: The Shockster actually dragged himself from his bed of pain to poke at the innards of my machine. Apparently I have been infected with TrojanDownloader.xs, which, as the name says, has downloaded a bunch of crap onto my machine. We are not pleased. Any suggestions? Gary discovered that much, found a few threads detailing fixes, and then crawled back to his sickbed. So I'll be fiddling with it in between homework sessions today.
Question: As a setup, a classmate was telling me about his new laptop. He's quite proud of it, pleased as punch, in fact. He professed to having wanted one for the longest time.
It's a Thinkpad.
Before you jump on me about what great machines they are, I have nothing against Thinkpads. They are sturdy, rather stolid, and totally lacking in sex appeal. Like my classmate. (Sorry, Christopher.) I realized that he bought the laptop that he most resembles.
I'm not geeky enough to put together one of those questionnaires that will help you figure this out, so I have to just ask.
If you were a laptop, what model would you be?
Heck, if I were a laptop, what model would *I* be? I'm feeling a little lost right now....
quixoticMar. 3rd, 2008
10:17 am - FYI
To all who may be interested--
I hosed my machine but good doing something stupid last night. I'll have only intermittent access (when I'm at school and when I can steal Gary's laptop) to email, but I will have access.
I may be a bit slow on the responses, though.
Bummer, but that's the way it goes.
crankyFeb. 29th, 2008
10:54 pm - Ten un-favorite things, starting with "s"
The reverse of the previous meme, again courtesy of dreambrother. Sucky stuff starting with "s". Nothing personal against the letter "s"--that's just what she gave me.
( Under the cut, for love of the flist. )
In other news, Shockmeister is sick, poor guy. Via my science writing class I've conned my way onto a trip to the Mojave with a group studying extremophiles. This isn't until April, but I'm pretty danged happy now.
More soon--
chipperFeb. 21st, 2008
11:08 pm - Top 10 things starting with "W"
Gotta quit these meme thangs. This time it's the fault of dreambrother, who gave me the W. I'm to list my top-10 W things, and if you'd like to play, just comment. I'll give you a letter. It may even be from the Roman alphabet.
Where to start? There's one in particular that's on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't quite remember it, so, in no particular order--
1. Winter. I do like winter. The kind with snow, and puffing your breath out in big white clouds, and breathing through your mouth even though you know you should breathe through your nose, because if you breathe through your nose it'll feel like your nose hairs are freezing together. And skiing. Especially skiing. I haven't been skiing in *ages*.
2. Wit. In pretty much every sense of the term. Smart and funny, smart and fast, just plain smart. We need smarts, but so many people these days seem to be abdicating the use of their smarts. "Would you buy it for a quarter?" Not fiction. Not fiction at all.
3. Wanderlust. Not that I have indulged mine nearly enough.
4. Widemannstatten patterns on iron meteorites. Okay, this is stretching, but I did get a W out of it and it has to do with astronomy stuff. Besides, the patterns are really pretty.
5. Sort of along the same line, w-bosons are here to represent the particle zoo, which we're getting to in Modern 2 pretty soon.
6. Vacuum. Hey. There's a double-u in it. Okay, moving on....
7. The other Whites in my family. My niece is very cool, and I just got to see her last weekend.
8. Wolfe, as in Gene. The David Lynch of Science Fiction. Sneaks into my brain and does weird things to my subconscious without my conscious noticing.
9. Wilderness. The best thing about the crazy state of my birth is all the forests and mountains and rivers and lakes and streams and deserts in it.
Hmmm...still not quite clicking on that one last--wait--wait--it's coming to me--
10. Writing. 'Nuff said.
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thoughtfulFeb. 9th, 2008
11:43 am - A very disturbing news story--
US evangelicals gaining ground in Europe.
Well. We continue to spread our poison.
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