West 116th Street

Newish blog

2008-07-21T10:01:00.002-04:00

Going to give it another shot at: http://irinapaley.wordpress.com
Less about Tom Lehrer, more about mortgages, toys, and EEG scans.

So long, and thanks for all the comments!

2007-05-13T07:13:00.000-04:00

This is the last post. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.

It's been fun writing this blog, but maintaining a sustainable flow of quality content has been too difficult, as of late. And, posting junk is unfair and pointless. For those refusing to let go, cheer up - w116 will resurface under a different URL in a few months, shrouded in much needed anonymity, of course. Surely, enough interesting things will happen by then to justify a new blog. Maybe it can be my dissertation-defense-blog, or my life-after-a-Mets-World-Series-win-blog, or even my check-out-my-new-book-deal-blog. Who knows.

Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting. Thanks for agreeing and disagreeing. Mostly, thanks for the book loans. I just hope that if I read this a few years from now, I won't be too embarrassed.

Almost deja vu

2007-05-06T20:16:00.000-04:00

Making us think that it's 1999:

- Roger Clemens, check.
- Andy Pettitte, check.
- Marianno Rivera, check.
- Derek Jeter, check.
- Jorge Posada, check.
- Luis Sojo, uh... check?

Missing from the illusion:

Tino Martinez, Chuck Knoblauch, Scott Brosius, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, Darryl Strawberry, David Cone, Orlando Hernandez.

No Way.

2007-05-06T19:38:00.000-04:00

Roger Clemens is a Yankee. Wow. Really, I didn't see this coming, even in light of all the rumors and speculations. This move is just a symptom of the misguided way that the Yankee organization has been managed in recent years. The focus is obviously on deals of the breaking news variety, even if they mean bringing in aging legacy players who should have retired several years ago. If Clemens turns this season around for the Yankees, I'll be happy to take back my criticism.

Apple lust strikes again

2007-05-04T18:57:00.000-04:00

Do you have people in your life who have a particular effect on you? Or perhaps our brains form various associations that are very difficult to break out of. There is a girl I see about once a year, and every time that we meet, we eat chocolate cake. Whenever she sends me email, I have a terrible craving for chocolate cake. So, I exchanged a few emails with Anthony the other day, and now I am experiencing terrible gadget lust. This time, I really want a MacBook. I don't need a MacBook. ("Nobody NEEDS a MacBook). Maybe Intern Zach's adventures in cheap hardware acquisition land had something to do with this too. But I really hope that I get over it, because there is nothing that will make me justify a purchase of a new laptop.

By the way, does anyone out there want to give me a MacBook?

Cry me a river

2007-05-01T20:20:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of sad Yankee fans out there. It kind of breaks your heart, and warms it at the same time. Kind of the same feeling you get when rich people get caught for tax evasion. Sad, but you know they had it coming. The interesting observation here is that you never see Mets fans in such a despondent state. And I don't mean just now. In general. Mets fans aren't sad, they just are. The fact that the Mets are not, have not, will not win the World Series is right in the same column with the fact that you, me, that guy, will not win the lottery. A winning season is just a bonus, a pleasant surprise, like the promotion you never even applied for. Well, maybe not. But this is one of my favorite gross generalizations.

Problem wording

2007-05-01T18:42:00.000-04:00

Tucker states the problem as follows:

"A set of 8 binary digits are equally spaced about the edge of a disk. We want to choose the digits so that they form a circular sequence in which every subsequence of length three is different. Model this problem with a graph with 4 vertices, one for each different subsequence of two binary digits. Make a directed edge for each subsequence of three digits whose origin is the vertex with the first two digits of the edge's subsequence and whose terminus is the vertex with the last two digits of the edge's subsequence. a) Build this graph. b) Show how an Euler cycle will correspond to the desired 8-digit circular sequence. c) Find such an 8 digit circular sequence with this graph model. d) Repeat the problem for 4 digit binary sequence."

Gross states the problem as follows:

"Find a (2,3)-deBruijn digraph and sequence. Repeat the same for a (2,4)-deBruijn digraph and sequence."

The problem is identical, although it is stated in obviously different terms. The question is, which is the optimal wording.

It should be noted that in Tucker, the question is presented after a chapter on Euler cycles, which mentions nothing at all about deBruijn sequences. In fact, this problem appears very early in the book, and very little has been said about digraphs at all, up to that point. In Gross, it follows an elaborate chapter dedicated entirely to deBruijn sequences, about half way into the book. However, I think that the Tucker approach works better in an introductory course. It's very much in spirit with the notion of letting the student "discover" the math that they need to solve a particular problem. Granted, the idea of a disc of binary digits probably does not stir the imagination for most students. But I think that it's a more constructive way of presenting the problem, as opposed to just explicitly stating the exact subject that you want the student to understand. If nothing else, the Tucker wording is far less conducive to just googling the answer.

A note on the subject of graph theory...

2007-05-01T18:38:00.000-04:00

The comprehension of the material, as well as successful completion of problem sets, is made significantly easier by the use of colored pens. Yes, indeed. Coupled with a competent instructor and a decent text, colored pens (or pencils, if you will, or even markers, if you are a barbarian of that sort) are really essential to anyone's success in the subject. I learned other things too, but this was the most apparent.

One more day

2007-05-01T18:34:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow my semester will officially end, as I hand in the final for my Graph Theory class. I'm just nearly done with the exam. I took today off to work on it. It was actually quite nice to be on campus strictly in the grad student capacity. Really nice. The final was a lot more challenging, compared to the midterm, which I found to be surprisingly easy. Overall, my experience with the class and the subject has been generally positive. I wish we had time to cover more material. That's really my only complaint. But I will write more once I get my grade.

Yankees... who?

2007-04-25T16:12:00.000-04:00

Not at all surprising, but satisfying nonetheless: all the New York dailies are writing about the Mets. A series loss to Boston will get you a few pages in Newsweek, but last place and half a game down from Tampa Bay will get you the good old New York shunning.

Bad start... for all but one.

2007-04-23T22:33:00.000-04:00

Here is what might happen. The Yankees might have, what I'd like to call, a Texas Rangers type of season. Namely, Arod puts up a spectacular performance, but due to a lack of pitching and offense, the team finishes just slightly above last place (in this case, the lowly Devil Rays).

If I were a gambling sort of girl, (which I am not, by the way) I'd be much inclined to wager whatever I haven't already allocated for the annual Apple store purchase on the likelihood of Arod hitting at least 74 home runs this year. And you know, I'm never wrong about these things.

Comics

2007-04-20T08:52:00.000-04:00

Can anyone recommend any good comics? Just to give you an idea of the genre-within-genre that I'm thinking of, I happen to like quite a bit: The Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, The Sandman, and especially, Bill Willingham's Fables; I didn't particularly care for: Blankets. Anything? Oh, also, if anyone has Fables TPB #9:Sons of Empire, can I please borrow? I'll only really need it for about one day, and lunch at Ollies (or equivalent) is on me.

Fake or real

2007-04-16T19:15:00.000-04:00

I can't tell if this amazon review is fake or real. Either I don't exactly know what an abacus is, or I don't know what computational astrophysics is. I am inclined to bet on the former.

Topical: Hoes

2007-04-13T14:56:00.000-04:00

The Imus story aside, I think that Hoes are always topical.

Big money

2007-04-12T18:52:00.000-04:00

Columbia University received an immense donation of $400 million from John Kluge, half of which is to be allocated to financial aid for students enrolled in Columbia College. Yesterday, I attended the meeting (rather, press conference) at which the announcement was made. This is great news for the President, as was evidenced by his genuine optimism, since it almost guarantees the success of Manhattanville, and thus, his legacy.

Yet somehow, I am finding it difficult to muster up the requisite amount of excitement about this news. Obviously, it's nice that some future students will get enough financial aide to study at the College. By all means. In fact, this is much better use of a philanthropic donation than the typical building renovation or a chair in the Literature department. But, if I had $400 million in free money, I would look to remedy other, more pressing educational issues than the financial difficulty of paying $140,000 for four years of liberal arts at an Ivy.

A side note - Mayor Bloomberg was also present at the announcement, and made a short, somewhat pointless speech. He mentioned how well his improvement plans for the NYC public schools are materializing. Unfortunately, nobody from TC was present to challenge him. Still, our differences on education reform aside, (transit strike? what transit strike?) Bloomberg is definitely my favorite politician. For one, he is an engineer (B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins), and obviously very clever. Also, he is short, in a charming sort of way. And that's pretty much all it takes.

So it goes

2007-04-12T18:51:00.000-04:00

RIP, Kurt Vonnegut, one of the greatest and funniest American writers, and one of my personal favorites. His cleverness and humor serve as a great example to future writers, as do his ridiculous characters, absurdly realistic scenes, and brilliant incoherence. But his most important and consistently profound message is that kindness is the most essential among all of our values.

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies - God damn it, you've got to be kind."

New blog (that I like)

2007-04-11T21:03:00.001-04:00

There is a cool new baseball blog - Any Which Way the Wind Blows. It's clever and funny, and this trivia questions about current GMs has been driving me absolutely nuts. Definitely check it out.

Updates

2007-04-10T12:54:00.000-04:00

In the form of a numbered list ...

1. To simply say that I've been busy at work would be an understatement that would make even members of the Bush administration uneasy.

2. My graph theory class is going well. I am finding the material extremely easy. I don't think that I've studied this in any great detail in undergrad, but for some reason it just makes sense to me. Really, the class is not particularly challenging. I did extremely well on the midterm, and I'm nearly sure of an A. I'm going to ask this professor for a recommendation for my file, but I am afraid that it'll go something along the lines of "She has clearly studied this material before, and I suspect that she is taking this class just to annoy the other students."

3. I have planned out an aggressive course schedule, and I have concluded that I can complete all the coursework that I need for my PhD by Fall 08. After that, I'll have to do "research," or rather, "Research." Of course, I can write my dissertation from anywhere, which adds quite a bit of flexibility in terms of planning that trip around the world, and such. The schedule is aggressive in the sense that it assumes that I will remain a free-tuition-whore, and continue working full time at my current job. It also assumes at least two summers where I take 3 classes. I also don't think that I'll be able to teach at all next year.

4. I recently had some sort of birthday, or something. I feel pretty good, in the sense that I've achieved pretty much all the academic and social milestones that my grandparents have set out for me on the day of my birth. (Is anyone out there operating under any other measure of success?) There is really very little that they can nag me about now, but they are creative people, and have a great deal of free time to come up with new material.

5. I am starting to look for a house again. Again. AGAIN! I am looking in Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst, primarily. It is a dreadfully disturbing thought that so much of my house-acquisition planning and thought is influenced by Intern Zach.

6. I think that in the fall, there is going to be a great big parade in New York. And Derek Jeter is going to be watching it on TV. And you know, I am always right about these things.

7. I'm going to make a best effort to blog more frequently.

Hiring interns

2007-03-14T20:24:00.000-04:00

Essential questions in determining competence and quality of character:

- What do you think of Dan Brown?
- What do you think of SG1 after Richard Dean Anderson left?
- Do you like PC or console games? If PC, shooter or RTS?
- When Pirate Bay went down, were you sad?
- Did you cry at the end of the Ender's Shadow series?

Throw in some Windows troubleshooting stuff, and that is all you really need.

You know

2007-03-14T20:22:00.000-04:00

On the old, mostly baseball (aka, Help, I'm stuck in Jersey) blog, I posted about once a week. At most. During the off season I posted maybe twice a month. Just saying, you know. To all who complain about lack of content, and such... Go fark it up, if you really have to.

Help

2007-03-10T09:17:00.001-05:00

Stop me from reading Ender's Game again. Recommend some spring break literature.

Ikea

2007-03-06T22:33:00.000-05:00

My two cents about Ikea furniture (a passive aggressive response, of sorts):

I like Ikea furniture.

There, I said it. Mostly, for two reasons. First, I like going to the Ikea store in Elizabeth, and eating those little meatballs. They are delicious. Also, I like putting together a bed from tiny little pieces of wood, realizing that I did something wrong at the very beginning because there are a few little knobby pieces missing, deciding to take it all apart again, eating some Thai food on the floor of a new apartment (because the table and chairs are still just piles of wood boards), and starting the whole assembly again. That's my idea of a good time.

So, the bed broke. Personally, I would use that incident as a testament of one's sexual prowess, instead of an example of shoddy Swedish workmanship.

Some signs of severe mental fatigue

2007-03-06T22:26:00.000-05:00

In addition to slurred speech and increased coffee consumption...

- The inability to control a really odd British-like Brooklyn accent.
- Eating lunch in the Wien dining hall, despite years of consistent food poisoning.
- Spending several hours on a proof which, according to the Professor himself, probably does not exist.
- Inability to control the impulse to tell embarrassing anecdotes about Goldberg's retarded antics freshman year.
- Letter-writing campaigns to Congress.
- Age of Empires.

Desperation

2007-03-06T22:23:00.000-05:00

Graph theory midterm tomorrow. In addition, a queue of about 40 bugs at work. Apocalyptic weather where it snows while the sun is shining, and the temperature is below freezing. The sporadic nature of the D train. You know, that's enough to make a girl lose her will to blog, not to mention, write complete and coherent sentences.

Financial Advice

2007-03-04T21:12:00.000-05:00

Very important bit here: get somebody else to think about the stock market and retirement planning, so as to free up your time for valuable contemplation about the latest Zelda game. Really, I couldn't even get through that post about the 401k. However, there was something there about mink that was both amusing and very very wrong.