My semester is officially over!

At the cafe in Butler, earlier this morning...

Me: Hey, what are you reading there?
Undergrad: Linear algebra, data structures, electrical engineering... I have three finals left.
Me: Oh! Good luck!
Undergrad: What about you?
Me: Well... I'm trying to decide between this book about Dracula, or a Batman comic.
Undergrad: I hate you so much.

Blame the party

We went to Liza's wedding yesterday. It wasn't the typical Russian party, in that it strictly followed Orthodox Jewish law. Of course, you put enough Russians in a large room with alcohol, and... well, you know how it goes. (Or if you don't, you should try to find out as soon as possible, but not if you still have finals).

I was completely unable to take any quality pictures, but fortunately, my buddies Kevin and Byron were the photographers, and they are excellent, and I'm sure, did a fantastic job. It was fun seeing them in this capacity, and I only hope that they will soon quit their boring corporate jobs and pursue photography as a real profession, because their stuff is amazing. It was also great to see many other friends and relatives, and everyone had a swell time.

There were two particularly amusing moments. The first occurred when there was a minor infiltration of women onto the men's side of the dance floor, which forced the flustered Rabbi to frantically muster up a serious effort to restore order. That was fun. The other occurred when the band started playing "Ochy Chernye" and Andrew and Dan set off on an elaborate discussion about the exact lyrics of the song. The humor of two very American guys discussing the words to a traditional Russian song at an Orthodox Jewish wedding was further enhanced by the great abundance and outstanding quality of the alcohol.

Stupid, stupid, me.

Never ever ever drink and party BEFORE the last final. Never. It makes no sense. Even if you are completely prepared. Even if it's your favorite subject. Even if a good draft of your paper is already done, and is resting safely in the hands of a trusty proofreader. Of if you must party, don't drink. Or if you must drink, don't drink a lot. Or if you must drink a lot, don't do it in the company of Russians.

I will never learn.

Yesterday

A considerable amount of time and mental energy was spent in a (futile) attempt to make me understand numerous details about hedge funds. All I can conclude is that they generally seem like a good idea, and I think that I should probably try to own more of them. But that's the extent of my comprehension on the topic. It's unfortunate that my knowledge of this is so miniscule. I really should understand more about how rich people get that way, since marriage (for money) and inheritance (of money) are not feasible options for me, and theft (of goods that can be sold for money) appears to be an unsuitable mechanism of wealth acquisition, considering the high moral ground that I foolishly choose to occupy.

Winter break reading

Please recommend some good fiction books for winter break reading. I am getting ready for a semester of Graph Theory, and would really appreciate a Douglas Adams type of diversion. In fact, I read "The Long Dark Team Time of the Soul" yesterday. It's one of those books that you should read once every few years, just to keep happy and sane, or insane, whatever the case may be. I would also really like to re-read the other Dirk Gently book, but I can't find it. Does anyone have it?

Also on my list:

- Absurdistan (although the NYPL waiting list is quite long, so I may not get it until Spring Break)
- American Prometheus (granted, not fiction, but it's been on my list for a while)
- Frank Miller's Batman: Year One
- Disgrace, by Coetzee
- Everyman, by Philip Roth
- Kurt Busiek's Marvels
- Timequake, by Kurt Vonnegut

Of course, I'll probably make my way, somehow, to Dune sequels. You know, the ones that should've never been written, or published, but that are still much better than the crappy prequels.

Obvious

A new study finds that American teachers may know more about how to teach math, while Chinese teachers actually know how to do math. I wonder why we can't produce teachers who have pedagogical competency and content expertise - those do not have to be mutually exclusive!

Good news everyone!

Andy Pettitte is back. Forgive and forget, people. Forgive and forget.

So, I guess, now we just need Clemens (Houston), Hernandez (Mets), Cone (retired), and Gooden (retired) and the glory days will return.

CC/SEAS Holiday Party

It was great. The food was really excellent, and I got to see a lot of people that I usually don't see. I took some pictures of my friends, and uploaded them to flickr. My camera is crappy, and the battery died, so I couldn't photograph more people. I am surprised that nobody else had a camera. Also, I know that I didn't take pictures of The Deans, but we all know what they look like, and much better photos are available here and here (and also on our wall).

Fortified with vitamins, minerals, and RUM!

Below is the picture of the box of a delicious sugary cereal, which I currently have in my house, and enjoy eating very much. It can be purchased in most Russian stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

But wait, what's that in the top corner there? Is that a pirate of some sort?

Oh my gosh! It's the logo of Captain Morgan Rum!

Ideas on Education

Given an addictive personality and a game of Dungeons and Dragons, a fifth grader can learn college level probability theory and a good set of SAT words before his 13th birthday.

30 down, 45 to go.

And here's where I am completely and truly serious -

A lot of you know that educational equity is an extremely important issue for me. The most important issue, in fact. This goes far beyond NCLB criticism. The educational achievement gap in the United States is a very serious threat to the future prosperity of our country. It starts during early childhood, and because the school system does nothing to combat it, extends over the course of a lifetime. The statistics are available, and we all know what is going on. However, we really don't have a solid strategy for resolving this.

After 30 credits of coursework (that's an M.A. from a top-five program in the country, mind you), and numerous all-night discussions with like-minded graduate students, I am convinced that even though we all have the moral aptitude and collective resolve to use our degrees to effect change (albeit, on a very small scale) we lack the practical strategy to actually reverse the situation on a national level. We deal in theory. That's what we've been taught. Whatever conclusions we form are about what not to do, what won't work.

So now I am trying to think in terms of expediency and practicality. I have 45 credits to go, what can I do? I mean, really do.

This is an open thread. I will read all the comments.

Disclaimer time!

It seems that a few Russians with a net of interconnected livejournal pages have picked up something I wrote several months ago. Much traffic, but nothing compared to the influx of new readers that resulted from the linkage of the TV article. Gosh. I feel it necessary to, again, restate my personal motto - I am just kidding! Whenever I am being serious, I usually try to be very explicit about it, as in "I am being serious now, our government is screwing us," or "Seriously, this problem set is very difficult." The key is the unambiguous admission of absolute sobriety. So, a humorous rant, replete with massive generalizations, should be filed into the funny-ha-ha category, or even into the isn't-she-cute category, but definitely not into the significant-social-commentary-to-be-quoted-and-analyzed-ad-nauseam category. You see?

Jukebox

Oh lord, what techno hell is this?

Next semester

I am taking graph theory. That is it. I'm also going to be teaching a lot. This semester has been rewarding in many ways.

Find the oops

From Alan Tucker's "Applied Combinatorics," Third Edition.

Explanation of Text Cover: The array of binomial coeeficients, written in classical Chinese characters, forms what in the West is called Pascal's Triangle. While Blaise Pascal observed this pattern in the mid-1800s, the array on the cover appeared in the 1300s in the work of Chu Shih-Chieh.