Viewless Hikes

Today I went on a hike to Stahlman Point, near Detroit Lake.

In the hour leading up to my departure, I kept refreshing the weather page on my computer. One minute it was predicting a 30% chance of precipitation. Ten minutes later, it was up to an 80% chance of precipitation. Back and forth, back and forth. I gave it up and looked outside. It was overcast with mild showers ("mizzle" in Oregonian terminology), so not bad. The weather stayed pretty consistent all morning and didn't disturb the hike at all.

When I say "didn't disturb", I mean that the hike to the summit and back was uneventful. Unfortunately, the view from the summit was equally uneventful. It was almost as though we were sitting inside a cloud--though, at 3500 feet, that wasn't terribly surprising. On the bright side, I've never seen such great light diffusion for picture-taking purposes. You couldn't have asked for better lighting conditions. Pity there wasn't anything to take a picture of...

By 1:00 PM, the sun was breaking through and things were warming up considerably. In my book, that's a definite fail for weather prediction algorithms.

After returning from the hike, I went grocery shopping. I wouldn't say that I'm quite up to Olympic standards yet, but it's getting much faster. Today's excursion took 30 minutes; I bet I can get it down to twenty. While shopping, I picked up a brick of Colby-Jack cheese and a brick of Colby cheese. To my chagrin, "Jack" cheese doesn't seem to exist. It's probably a conspiracy. If consumers could buy it separately, they'd probably just combine the two and forgo the combo cheese.

Those evil corporations, always gouging us poor citizens to our detriment and their gain. Maybe we should get government to fix the cheese industry.

Monsters Lurking in the Living Room

Every time I get home from work, there's a three-legged monster standing in my living room, waiting for me. Its large eye is usually gleaming in my direction, looking like some grotesque prehistoric thing brought back from the annuals of time. Each leg has two segments, allowing for great flexibility and stealth when stalking prey.

Then I flick the light switch, and it turns into my tripod-mounted camera. (hey, who says you can't take artistic liberties when blogging?)

"So there's a tripod sitting in your living room", you're thinking. "Big deal."

Now, if it were there merely for decoration, I'd agree with you. However, it's much more than that. It symbolizes the need for me to start working on something productive; it gets my creative juices flowing.

The first thing it reminds me to do is blog. I walk in that door, start thinking about pictures, and then try to find something that catches the eye. Even if the picture doesn't relate to my post, it still serves the purpose of getting me out of my box and thinking about a unique topic to write about. Usually an idea will pop up while I'm doing a random activity, like dinner prep, speech writing, chess, or math homework.

For example, tonight I spent some time studying Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs). While studying, I realized that differential equations would make a terrible blog entry, so I moved on to dinner prep. Still nothing. I sliced up an avocado and a grapefruit, but the knife didn't slip or anything, so there wasn't anything to write home about. As time kept creeping closer and closer to blogging time, with zero noteworthy happenings, I began to realize the desperation of the situation...

...which is why I ended up writing about writing. It's an old standby when no better topic presents itself. The tripod monster was the last gasp of my imagination, and, as you saw, things went downhill from there. I close this post wishing you a very good night and--I hope--no ill effects from the extreme excitement displayed here.

Until next time.

Where the Nerds go

Today I attended the OSU chess club for the first time. It was such a thrill playing real opponents with the breath of life in them. Such ecstasy. Such joy. I can't even begin to describe the feeling as I began that first game.

I was annihilated.

Chalk it up to nervousness or that prior feeling of bliss; one or the other rendered my mental processes useless. Whatever the case, I quickly realized that this club wasn't going to give the new guy off the street an easy time. I rebounded in games two and three, drew the fourth, and lost the fifth (the euphoria was starting to creep back in).

But oh, the pain was worth the cost. There's nothing like touching physical chess pieces, nothing like seeing (or feeling) the agony of defeat or thrill of victory first-hand. It's a chess thing. All I can say is that I left that place happy.

And it wasn't just the chess. The people there were weird, but weird in a strangely familiar way. The social ineptness, the sarcastic remarks, the "nerdness" in the air, it just felt right.

Of course, this is probably because I'm just a weird guy myself. Maybe some soul searching is in order.

Online Gaming

I'm an online gamer, though probably not in the way you'd expect.

My game is the game of persuasion. My arena is YouTube. It's not a game of skill as much as it's a game of luck. In order to win, you have to convince people that your view on a particular subject is the right view. Obviously, it's an easier game to play if you're a talented speaker and your videos go viral, but that's where the luck comes in.

Once you've got a large number of people watching your persuasive speeches, you get all kinds of interesting feedback:

• "You're a ****ing idiot."
  
  
• "Dude, you've got a nice voice. If you got a real haircut you could sing in the London underground."
  
  
• "Get out of school and read a ****ing book."

As constructive as these comments are, I've realized that most viewers are rather entrenched in their ways and reluctant to change. Still, it's a pleasant way to spend the evening, and probably more productive than playing tic-tac-toe or chess with myself.

Simplicity as seen by a bachelor

Living alone as a bachelor, one learns to appreciate simple things. Take an apple for instance. It's nutritious. It's cheap. It comes with an eatable external wrapper and requires zero preparation time. Granted, you'll have to eat the stem and seeds if you want zero clean-up afterwards, but hey, it's a small sacrifice for simplicity's sake. Thoreau would agree.

Granted, man cannot live upon raw fruits and vegetables alone. Protein is another necessary component of a bachelor's diet. That said, is there a need to sacrifice simplicity in the pursuit of this dietary component? Absolutely not! There are many simple ways to obtain protein. Protein mix, lunch meat, canned tuna, and fried eggs, are all excellent sources of protein with a minimum of effort required (notice that I've ordered the list from easiest to prepare to hardest to prepare, fried eggs are definitely pushing the envelope).

Yes, going it solo is definitely a trial in patience, as it takes time to achieve nirvana in food preparation. However, once reached, all the pain of hitting your goal will be instantly forgotten, and you will live forever in a state of eternal bliss and pleasant satiation. 

DISCLAIMER: The above rhetoric is meant as a sarcastic critique of complex food preparation. The author does not actually view a violation of simplicity as a sin, nor is he advocating the concept of nirvana. Rather, he finds a good dose of humor to be helpful in digestion, and it serves as an important ingredient in his patented Spice of Life™.

Libertarianism and the freedom to discriminate

I'll cut to the chase. Rand Paul, as many of you know, is a libertarian who won the GOP nomination for Kentucky's US Senate seat. In an interview, he essentially said that he doesn't support some of the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Namely, those provisions which tell private individuals that they cannot discriminate on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity.

You can read http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/20/rand-paul-reacts-to-criticism/?test=latestnews for his exact wording.

In other words, Mr. Paul believes that individuals (outside of government) should have the freedom to discriminate. This flies in the face of affirmative action and other anti-discriminatory programs, so, understandably, he's taking quite a beating from the liberal elite.

His position is grounded in libertarianism, which, as my friend Nathan mentioned to me, is a minimalistic view of government without any of the moral or social reservations of the conservative movement.

This is where I'd like some input. Many (most?) conservatives and liberals alike are attacking Mr. Paul for his stance on private discrimination. The fact that conservatives are angered by this surprises me somewhat, though, as my friend Laura pointed out, the modern conservative movement is no longer very conservative.

A talk show host I was listening to last night made some very astute observations. He said that:

1. Liberals use government as a wedge to force social change on the population.
   
2. Conservatives use government as a tool to institute moral reforms that try and adhere to tradition.
   
3. Libertarians don't use government as a means to achieve either objective. Rather, their goal is to maximize personal freedom by limiting government as much as possible. They then allow free market principals to determine what moral or social conduct becomes the norm.

Like it or not, you've got to admit that libertarians have been stalwart allies in the fight against big government. While my gut instinct is to stand with Rand Paul on this issue, as I don't like affirmative action any more than the next person, is this really a morally acceptable stance? Should we allow people to discriminate as they see fit? Does this stance comply with Christian principles?

Related to this, I'm thinking about how our Constitution forbids the establishment of a state religion. People are free to worship as they see fit. Does this mean that people should be free to discriminate as they see fit? Is  this a valid parallel to make?

Lots of questions. Time for answers.

Food and Flying Away

One thing I've noticed over the past few weeks, is how much time food preparation takes. Seriously, if you're going to eat healthy on a budget, you can't eat out, and you must cook (unless you're a raw food vegan, which I'm not).

Cooking is an interesting proposition for someone who hasn't done much cooking in his 22 years of existence. My idea of cooking was to crack an egg in a pan, throw a slice of bread in the toaster, then combine and eat.

Not so much.

First of all, eggs on toast morning, noon, and night can get old really, really fast. Fortunately, I realized this fairly early in the process. In fact, I understood that my menu had to contain a fair number of meal plans, otherwise meal times were going to be really, really boring. Of course, a varied menu means that food preparation becomes exponentially more complex in a number of ways:

1. Buying more items at the store (my average shopping list involves around 31 different products)
   
2. More food preparation time (unless you're making a smoothie, more ingredients mean more slicing, dicing, and overall organization of everything)
   
3. More clean-up time (pots, pans, utensils, plates, cups, blender, stove-tops, counter-tops, all have to be washed, rinsed, and dried)

All these little details add up, and I find myself spending a lot of time in the kitchen. It typically takes me 45-minutes to prepare, eat, and clean-up breakfast. Lunch is fast--half an hour is all--but dinner averages something like an hour and fifteen minutes. Sum it all up, and we're talking  two-and-a-half hours every day dedicated to eating. It sure helps to put your mom into perspective. No wonder she starts to despise the kitchen after 20-years of preparing meals.

Time to change the subject.

Sure, cooking is interesting and all, but it doesn't really capture my attention, so my writing on the subject is going to be as dry as... well... crumbs from that toast I was talking about. So, let's talk about something else. How about flying?

Yep, today I nearly went flying. Involuntarily of course. Monday I got a call from my local Staples, informing me that the whiteboard I ordered was finally in stock. Today I decided to drop by the store on my walk home from work. It seemed a bit gusty (I later saw that we were getting 20 MPH gusts), but no problem. Heck, I'm a heavy weight: 145 pounds dripping wet. No matter that the whiteboard is a 4'x6' monster, and that large flat surfaces aren't exactly wind-friendly. Nope, I was ready to throw caution to the winds and carry that sucker home. 

I wish I could say that the two block walk home was straightforward and easy. Not exactly.

For starters, I had difficulty making it out of Staples. The automatic doors didn't see me (or the box, rather), so I had to enlist the help of a humored employee. So far, so good.

The second problem was that carrying the thing didn't work out so well. The board itself is 76 pounds. Add the 14 pounds of packaging, and we're talking an extremely awkward box that weighs almost 2/3rds of what I do. I ended up dragging it the half-mile to my apartment. Not so good, but hey, at least I was moving.

The third problem was the gusts. Yes, unfortunately physics apply to my life in a myriad of wonderful ways. It wasn't the dragging on the sidewalk that was the main problem. No, the main problem was the two busy intersections I had to cross. My crossing trajectory was perpendicular to the wind, so, you guessed it, I ended up staggering to and fro like a drunken sailor, trying to keep my box under control.

It was definitely slow going. But on the bright side, I haven't talked to as many strangers in my entire month here in Corvallis. Yep, I felt like a celebrity. The guy who sticks clearest in my mind was the roofer who tried showing me a better way to carry my burden. The poor fella loaded it onto his back, like a piece of plywood, just as one of those 20 MPH gusts came hurtling along. He quickly agreed that dragging was an excellent mode of transportation.

Just so you know, the board is safely in my apartment. By the sweat of my brow and at the expense of my pride, the board is safely in my apartment. My folks got a great laugh out of the whole story. I'm just glad that no one thought to take pictures... hopefully.

And there you have it. A double feature on food and flying (or trying to). Just remember. These experiences are prime examples of what you shouldn't do. A homeschooler living solo is a very dangerous proposition. Enough said.

Oxymoron #1: Documentaries pushing an agenda

Tonight I watched Super Size Me, a documentary on the evils of big corporations and the victims they prey on: primarily children. There's a lot of truth in these documentaries...

Truth #1: Fast food is a bad idea for people who don't want to gain weight. (then again, so is skydiving for people who have a fear of heights.)

Truth #2:  Most big corporations put their shareholders ahead of the needs of their customers. (then again, most environmentalists put flora and fauna ahead of the needs of their own race.)

Mixed in with these truths, though, is a complete lack of self-responsibility. Just as I can choose not to go skydiving for fear of what might happen to my body, so I can choose not to go to McDonalds for fear of what might happen to my body. In fact, while we're spreading blame around, why not criticize the parents who regularly take their kids to fast food restaurants and buy them food that's bad for them? Time for an analogy...

It's funny, in the documentary, there were lots of references (both explicit and implicit) linking fast food and cigarettes together. One example: fast food is addicting, cigarettes are addicting. Another example: fast food is marketed by big (evil) corporations, cigarettes are marketed by big (evil) corporations. Yet another example: Ronald McDonald is an evil mascot promoting death, Joe Camel is an evil mascot promoting death. I use the term "funny" (perhaps "ironic" would be a better choice) because of where they stop their comparisons...

Trust me, if parents bought cigarettes for their children, and someone made a documentary on the topic, there'd be public outrage. Why is it then that whenever someone does a documentary on fast food, they never mention how parents are responsible for feeding it to their kids? If cigarettes and fast food are really so similar, why the omission?

Why? It's obvious! If parents are truly responsible for their kids, then the following aspects of the liberal agenda fall into disrepair:

1. Big corporations can't be blamed (or sued) for how people legally use their products.
   
2. Government loses control over the next generation, as well as many opportunities to legislate what people are allowed to do.

Remember, it's all about power and control. The one who steers the car decides where the passengers go. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have freedom than "safety". The quotes are there because government can never guarantee safety through excessive legislation, whereas the lack of excessive legislation guarantees freedom.

Conversation: Hamming it up

Don't ask why, but I recently watched a video interview of a professional screenwriter, giving tips for how to write good scripts. Shocking, I know.

Anyways, he made a great point about how the Internet and social networking in particular have really hurt the art of human conversation. Of the top-rated films of all time, most were shot prior to the Internet revolution. His idea is that a lot of the conversational nuances that make for interesting film dialog just aren't easily communicated online. When we don't exercise those speaking skills, they're lost, and microdevolution sets in (you heard it here first).

I don't know about you guys, but I find that I spend a large amount of time on Facebook, IM, e-mail, and other online social tools. When I started, I paid really close attention to punctuation, spelling, grammar, and all those other nit-picky items that have been pounded into our heads from antiquity. As time progressed, I found myself paying less and less attention to these niceties (hey, if few people use them on Facebook, why should I?). Add acronyms and emoticons to my pile of iniquity, and you end up with conversations like:

01:30 PM - Me: hey!

01:35 PM - Friend: wazzup? 

01:55 PM - Me: not much, sry about missing your IM

01:55 PM - friend signed off

01:56 PM - Me: oops, well, ttyl. :-P

Now that's what I call a productive conversation. I'd say the language is definitely a few notches above Neanderthal, though it probably falls a bit short of true English. It seems that, if it's really important we talk with someone, that more could be accomplished by talking in person, or taking the time to formulate our thoughts and write an e-mail. I enjoy social networking as much as the next person, but constant connectedness doesn't always seem to translate into deeper or more meaningful conversations.

I've always been one to say that fresh air is overrated, but considering where we've come from, and where we're headed as a culture, more fresh air might be the ticket to mental sanity. Also, building on yesterday's post, if we become more effective communicators, we might circumvent a lot of relational problems that turn us into withering globs of helpless human matter. Just a thought.

Courtship, Infatuation, and Protein Powder

What is love? What is infatuation? How are these concepts viewed within the conservative homeschooling community? Does the principle of courtship put the bar too high for the formation of these relationships?

...and above all, what do these topics have to do with protein powder? Actually nothing. It's just that I'll be adding pictures to all of my blog posts from now on, and I had a can of protein powder handy. ;-)

But in case you're wondering, the rest of this is going to end up being a serious post. And now, having scared off 90% of my readership, let's continue...

I despise generalizations. People enjoy being unique, and don't like being put into boxes. When I say something like, "homeschoolers believe that courtship is the only appropriate environment for guy/girl relationships", I'm bound to step on toes and offend people. Even so, generalizations make for easy and concise commentary. Also, I'm lazy, so I'm just going to apologize in advance and charge through the china shop.

Many of you have probably read I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Boy Meets Girl, by Joshua Harris. In these books, he presents the view that secular dating fosters a "casual relationship" philosophy, to the detriment of "marriage for life". As a result, he advocates courtship instead. The primary differences between courtship and secular dating are the seriousness of the commitment and the involvement of third parties. A corollary to the seriousness of the commitment is the supposition that God has a special person in mind for each girl and each guy (those who will not remain single, that is). If you want a more complete understanding of the differences, feel free to pick up the books and read for yourself. Suffice it to say that courtship discourages casual interaction between guys and girls. This is often problematic for reasons I'll mention later on.

Okay, here come the generalizations (*cringe*). For the remainder of this post, I'll be assuming that:

1. (Most) Homeschoolers subscribe to a courtship mentality (hence dating is off the table).
2. (Most) Homeschoolers are conservative Christians

With these two criteria in place, let me explain a little about how I've been raised. Growing up, I've been taught that our allegiance belongs to God above all else. Everything we do should be for His glory. Marriage, while often in His plan for our lives, should not be our foremost concern. When God is ready for us to marry, He will make His choice for us clear. This is why dating isn't an option. It isn't our job isn't to find our helpmate, it's God's job. When he shows us who we are to marry, courtship will be the means of fostering the relationship, not casual dating.

I am one of those who subscribe to the above train of thought. It's simple, straight-forward, and God centered. Of course, as many of you may know, the forest is often easier to see than the trees. When it comes to walking through life from day to day, things can easily get muddled.

As explained above, it isn't our job to look for our future helpmate. The trouble is, men are naturally attracted to women, and vice-versa. I'm talking about infatuation here, not true love. When you're a Christian single, you can be especially attracted to godly members of the opposite sex. Here's where the rubber meets the road. If we internalize the fact that we aren't supposed to let these natural attractions rule the day, we've got to (through God's help), keep those inner feelings under control. Unfortunately, this suppression often manifests itself in "standoffishness" and "tightness" between godly young men and women at church and social functions.

Clearly, "standoffishness" and "tightness" aren't how brothers and sisters in Christ should be treating each other. And yet, this treatment is usually out of a genuine desire to protect and guard each others' hearts, a decidedly worthwhile goal. The thing is, if we've closed off our minds and hearts to each other, how can God break through when it's truly time to pursue a lifelong relationship?

This is where my experience ends, and where this post ends as well. I've failed to discover where we proceed past this point of seeming cold and unfeeling toward one another. Perhaps it's just me. Perhaps the vast majority of you don't notice any of this, and I need to do some serious praying and soul searching. Whatever the case, this is where I believe many single Christians are at, and I hope this post puts to words what many of you have been feeling.

I leave the floor open for your thoughts and comments. 

Some Fridays are good, and others...

It's really nice living on the outskirts of Corvallis, because, even during rush hour, the traffic isn't too bad. After work, I got a hair trim, walked back to the apartment to dump my stuff, drove down to the store, and began the business of filling my cart. I spent quite a bit on groceries this week, as I was stocking up on non-perishable items: canned soups, tuna, green beans, refried beans, and... yes... a 101 oz bottle of olive oil. It was expensive ($26), but economical compared with those smaller bottles. Besides, I do love my olive oil.

Check-out took awhile, but I got my shiny new Rewards Card, and was out of there.

I loaded up the car and slammed the trunk. It was then that I realized (in a mild panic) one very important detail. I had slammed the trunk after putting my car keys in the trunk. Don't ask me why, call it fate, call it Divine Will, call it what you like, the fact was, I'd locked pounds of frozen and refrigerated foodstuffs in a hot black car, on a hot black asphalt parking lot, on a beautiful, 75-degree day (the first such day of the year, lucky me). Yep, my goose was fried, or in the process of being fried, rather. Well, there was only one thing for it. I started sprinting for home, replete in jeans and a polo shirt (oh, did I mention it was warm out?). As I was running, several interesting thoughts crossed my mind. Thoughts such as, "you know, it's really quite astonishing how fast one runs when all of one's food is locked in one's trunk"--and--"I don't think the purpose of exercise is really to get fit. No, I think getting fit is a mere side-effect of exercise. The real reason for exercise is so you can take advantage of random opportunities for fresh air". Ah yes, I was definitely trying to look on the bright side of things at that point.

Well, I finally made it back to my apartment, grabbed the spare keys, and, in an attempt to salvage whatever was left of my pride, donned some shorts and a t-shirt, so it would look like I was out for a leisurely run. Okay, so maybe "leisurely" is the wrong word. Anyway, I bolted out the door with keys in hand and a vengeful stride under me. Thoughts of screaming vegetables and cringing cans of frozen juice were echoing through my crazed mind. The time read 6:15, so I knew I'd been gone for fifteen minutes, with another fifteen to go. After hurtling around corners and startling the occasional passersby, I finally regained the Fred Meyer parking lot. Yes, my car was still there, groceries and all (I tried not to think too much about the latter). The ride home was blissfully short. Upon arrival, I threw open the trunk, grabbed the bags, tossed them in the fridge, and cranked the temperature down as low as I could. I then returned to the car, and looked in the trunk for my keys... No keys.

Not to ruin the suspense, but I'd already carried them inside, as they'd fallen into one of the grocery bags. Still, I was mildly alarmed, and considered briefly a visit to a doctor for psychiatric evaluation. I may still visit that doctor, but for now, I'm planning on a wonderful protein-filled meal and making it an early night. That was enough excitement for one day, and possibly for the entire weekend.

And no, I didn't conjure this up as some sort of deranged publicity stunt or an attempt to break my writer's block. In fact, I'll have you know that I already had another post all planned and ready for execution. All things considered, I figured this one would serve as a better bookend to a rather dull work week.

Control Systems

Well, I'm having a hard time thinking of something to rant about. Could be writer's block, or perhaps something more sinister. I guess it's true that not every day includes a noteworthy event, not even for an über exciting guy like myself. 

One thing I'm working on after work is a control system for motorized vehicles. Think of it as a practical application of  math and physics. For example, suppose you have a boat with a heading of 30° at a constant velocity of 25 km/hour. If you want to change the heading, to, say, 120°, you've got to take into account the following:

1. The maximum thrust (acceleration) of the engine
2. The range of directions in which that force can be applied
3. The inertia of the boat in its current course
4. The water resistance and direction of flow

Essentially, the software I'm writing would be able to calculate the resulting trajectory of that boat as it's changing course.

Just something I'm working on to pass the evenings. Do any of you have past experience in this type of control system?

Emily

My sister has a strong influence on me. Very strong. All I could think about while preparing dinner was Emily.

As the refried beans plopped into the pan, I thought of Emily. As I poured a full cup of pasteurized milk, I thought of Emily. As I layered tortilla chips under my taco salad, I thought of Emily. As I chopped sweet bell peppers, I thought of Emily. She'd be so disappointed in me tonight. Maybe I should pick up some cayenne peppers in penance.

Then again, with her and her knife wielding skills, I may not get the opportunity to buy said peppers. Perhaps a locked door is the best policy tonight.

Math: Looking Back

I got my test scores back today. And... I've got some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that I won't have to retake MA528 (this semester's class). My score on the final was an 84% (B), which was sufficient to get me a final grade of a B (par for the course). Unfortunately, the C- in that first mid-term killed my chances of hitting my goal of a B+.

The bad news is this means I'm going to have to retake MA527 next Fall. That said, if I had to choose one class to retake, MA527 would have been my choice. The first time I took it, I didn't have time to really study the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform), which is a fundamental concept for wireless engineering. Knowledge of the FFT wasn't tested in the final exam, so naturally I skirted it in favor of topics that were being tested. A retake in the fall will allow me to study it further (me being an old veteran and all). ;-)

All in all, I've really enjoyed the challenge of school this past year. I came into the fall term a naive undergrad, with the most rudimentary understanding of the basics of calculus (one term in my senior year). I've come out of the spring semester thoroughly chewed up and spit out by the big boys in engineering academia. My final analysis is that I survived the year, did better on the outset than on the inset (improving from a B- in the first semester to a B in the second semester), and feel like next year I'll be solidly in the B+ zone.

Following are the topics covered this year (bolded items will be retaken next semester):

• Ordinary Differential Equations (systems of ODEs, Legendre's equation, Bessel's equation, Sturm-Liouville problems)
• Partial Differential Equations (1- and 2D Wave Equation, 1- and 2D Heat Equation, Laplacian)
• Laplace Transforms (solving systems of ODEs)
• Fourier Analysis (Fourier Series/Integrals/Transforms, Discrete and Fast Fourier Transform)
• Linear Algebra (Eigenvalues, Eigenvectors, Eigenbases, Diagonalization, Quadratic Forms)
• Vector Calculus (Green's Theorem, Divergence Theorem of Gauss, Stokes's Theorem)
• Complex Analysis (Cauchy's Integral Formula, Taylor Series, Laurent Series, Conformal Mapping)

Yeah, if I knew what kind of catch-up I'd be required to do, I would have thought twice before enrolling. Take heed all ye who want to transfer to a grad-level EE program after earning a CS degree. It will hurt.

Oh yes, and I voted today. As much as I hated to do it, I voted John Lim for governor. I would have much rather voted for a Ronald Reagan-type figure. You know, a person who can speak as well as hold conservative views regarding life, but then, it wasn't our luck to have such a person available. However, Mr. Lim is clearly the best option available to us in our present situation.

Laundry (yes, it's as thrilling as it sounds)

Today was another busy day. I filled the car with gas, dumped my mileage statistics to a spreadsheet, got my first electric bill (yay), and did laundry (for the first time, I might add). Okay, let's dig in.

Yes, you heard right, I did laundry for the first time ever. It wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped, but I learned a number of interesting things. First, I've got enough clothes to do two full loads simultaneously (one dark, and one light). Second, it takes me around 3 weeks to get to that point. Third, it takes 35 minutes to wash, 55 minutes to dry, and about a half-hour to put everything away, bringing us to a grand total of 2 hours laundry time every three weeks (not bad, eh?). This is assuming that no one else is using the laundry room, since I can run both loads at the same time otherwise.

In other news today, I received my first power bill from Pacific Power. The billing comes to $19.40 for about half a month of energy usage (17 days). In all, I used 181 kwh of energy (lighting, appliances, and laptop, I don't use heat). How does this compare to some of you out there? I don't really have a good point of comparison.

Also, I filled the car this afternoon, so I won't have to do it tomorrow on my way to church. As mentioned before, I tabulated all the mileage information into a spreadsheet (graphs below). To summarize, the mileage has been consistent over the years, and it looks like commuting up 99W twice a week will yield around 38 MPG. I've been averaging around 360 miles a week since I moved down here (though it will probably drop a bit over time), so you're looking at around $30/week for gas (assuming $3/gallon). I'd like to see that average drop a bit, but we'll see how things change over the summer.

On Kmart and Whiteboards...

Well, it's the end of a crazy finals week. This also marks the official start of my summer "vacation", though, what with work and all, I'll be plenty busy. One of my goals is to study statistics in preparation for a digital communication class next semester. The other is to do some hardcore programming, as I'm not getting any of that at work.

Today was an interesting day, all told. I found out some interesting facts. First, a 4'x6' whiteboard doesn't fit in a Toyota Corolla, as much as I'd like it too. Second, Kmart isn't a good place to find incidentals (in my case, fingernail clippers). Not to say that they don't stock those items, it's just kind of like finding a speck of pepper in a salt shaker (...in my defense, it was either that horrible analogy or the mother of all clichés... can you say needle and haystack?).

About the whiteboard. I know they all look alike, but apparently there are big differences. While browsing at Staples, I noticed that some whiteboards had a 10 year warranty and others had a 50 year warranty. It seems that the materials are the key. The lower-cost whiteboards use a substance called Melamine (a resin composed of cyanamide and formaldehyde). The higher-cost whiteboards use a porcelain ceramic-on-steel coating. The difference is that Melamine is somewhat porous, so ghosting (left-over ink stains) occurs easily. Porcelain is essentially glass, so is not pourous, and consequently doesn't suffer from ghosting. In fact, you can even use permanent marker on a ceramic-steel whiteboard, and it will just rub right off. Another interesting thing about ceramic-steel whiteboards is that they're usually magnetic, so they can do double-duty as a bulletin board.

Well, that's probably more info than you ever wanted to know, but I found it interesting.

About the hardcore programming. Over the next six months I'll be developing a RTS game for the Windows Phone 7 platform. Stay tuned.

Finals are over

Now that finals are over, I can start relaxing and writing more candidly (if you want to bail out, now's the time). Okay, warning over, let's dive into the report.

As you might have already guessed, I had my final today for MA528. The exam was two hours long and consisted of six questions. I'd repeat some of the questions here, but they consist of symbols that don't exist on a 101-key keyboard. Frankly, I'm a little frightened sitting here thinking back on the experience. My gut feel is that the exam went well, but then I've felt good about exams on which I scored a C+. Basically, I need a 90%+ score to end up with a B+, which is necessary to bring my GPA up to a 3.0, which is necessary to avoid retaking classes next semester, which is necessary to convince me that continuing in grad school is a good idea. Make sense? So, no pressure... I just probably won't sleep for the next week.

Returning home, I went over to Les Schwab to get new tires for the car. Hearing about the $500 price tag for new tires nearly gave me a heart attack, but I went ahead and got them. They've got a 70,000 mile warranty, so I shouldn't need replacements for awhile. The interesting thing was that I didn't pay a premium for these tires. Sure, they cost more, but relative to their warranty, they only cost about 1% more than the run-of-the-mill 40,000 mile tires. Now for a new paint job...

After tires, I went to Fred Meyer and stocked up for the next week. That 10-pound bag of potatoes is going to last awhile.

On a side note, I miss those little amenities of home that you never think about until you need them. Right now I could use a good pair of fingernail clippers, and, of course, I've forgotten to pick them up on 5/5 of my last grocery excursions. I think my odds of winning the lottery are better.

Update from The Front

I'll make this fairly brief, as I'm cramming for my MA528 final tomorrow.

As I mentioned in a prior note, at work I have access to a 5,000 megapixel printer. So, today at lunch I drove over to a city park, took a bunch of photos, and hightailed it back to HP for stitching. It took about an hour for Photoshop to merge all the photos into one colossal image file (1 GB to be exact). Thrilled, I loaded it onto my USB drive, and inserted it into the photo kiosk, only to see the following error: "Sorry, we don't allow pictures over 60 megapixels". Great, just great.

Let me get this straight. HP has assembled a truly impressive array of printing technology, capable of printing pictures at 5,000 megapixels, and they chose a 60 megapixel software limit? Understand this, I do not. It makes about as much sense as putting a 1,000 horsepower engine in a race car, then installing a 10 MPH speedometer. I may be a mere mortal test engineer, but I'm going to find out why this embarrassing limit was instituted, if it kills me.

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Since I spaced posting an update last night, I'll do my best to recap yesterday's activities. First, I woke up, then studied. At noon, I ate lunch, then studied. Late afternoon, I ate dinner, studied, then went to bed. There, now we're caught up-to-date. ;-)

Tonight I visited a new church, Westminster Presbyterian Church, about 2.5 miles north from my apartment. The pastor reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger, both in build and speech, but that was about the most alarming part of my visit. In fact, one could argue that the resemblance helps result in an authoritative delivery of the Scriptures. Of course, the content of the message was solid as well. The passage was from Luke 13:10-17, on the topic of legalism. My notes were as follows:

1. Jesus Christ's ministry on earth was to set free those held captive by Satan, effectively reversing their state of bondage.The year of Jubilee and the Sabbath were two institutions that symbolized this ministry of reversal (the year of Jubilee saw the return of goods to their original owners, the Sabbath saw rest from the typical pattern of work during the week).
   
2. Because of the above points, the four instances of Jesus performing miracles on the Sabbath serve as special pictures of His earthly ministry. This particular miracle involved releasing a woman bent over due to an unclean spirit.
   
3. In touching the woman, Jesus effectively claimed her from Satan's 18-year old grasp. The interesting thing is that this miracle, unlike most, was unsolicited, and the woman's faith was never mentioned. This shows an example of how God's mercy often extends to those who have not asked for it, and may in fact be hostile towards him. The "natural" blessings of rain, greenery, and sunshine are other examples of (ofttimes) unsolicited mercy.
   
4. The takeaway is that we as Christians should be just as free with our compassion towards those suffering from satanic oppression, whether solicited or not. Furthermore, if Jesus was so responsive towards one who didn't ask for His help, how much more responsive is He towards those who do?
   
5. Despite this miraculous healing, the ruler of the synagogue did not rejoice with the woman, instead pointing out that she should not have been healed on the Sabbath. In return, Jesus called him a hypocrite, pointing out that even animals are cared for during the sabbath.
   
6. The ruler of the synagogue was indeed a hypocrite. All he saw was a violation of rabbinical law. There were 49 actions explicitly forbidden (by the pharisees) to be performed on the Sabbath, healing was one of these. However, caring for animals was not explicitly forbidden in these laws (pointed out by Jesus). The result was a system of laws that valued animals higher than man (sound familiar?). These laws were effectively used by Satan to oppress people, and Jesus's ardent opposition to the religious establishment was meant to reverse this oppression.
   
7. The takeaway is that misdirected zeal (legalism) is one of the most destructive forces in the church. We need God to deliver us from our pet peeves that cause us to be hypocrites who aid Satan's cause.

The message was followed by a 15 minute question and answer time, in a teaching setting. The pastor taught from an ESV Bible, had a strong but easy-to-understand accent, and used an expository style of teaching. Hymns were sung exclusively, accompanied by an acoustical guitar (a piano was also on stage). The pastor mentioned during the Q/A time that he prefers this style of worship, though he admits he couldn't provide a theological argument against CCM styles. His wording was that he finds most CCM styles "hideous". The congregation is quite small. About 120 people worship on Sunday mornings, and around 80 worship Sunday evening. There is a considerable (for the size) college-age group, which isn't all that surprising, given theproximity to OSU. They have bi-weekly home groups and men's fellowship, all in Corvallis.

I think I'll try attending WPC on Sunday evening for a few weeks, just to see how things go. I'll try to broach the topic of infant baptism with the pastor, though after tonight's sermon on legalism, I'm somewhat reluctant to do so. The main Presbyterian argument in favor of infant baptism essentially equates circumcision with baptism. Their full argument is here.