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June 10th, 2009
April 27th, 2009
11:47 pm
So I just realized that two weeks from Wednesday, I'll be 22.
This is kind of tripping me out.
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April 17th, 2009
10:42 pm - Help me choose my cellphone ringer!
So for the last few months, my cellphone ringer has been a snippet from Weezer's Buddy Holly, but I'm starting to get a little tired of it - it's time for a change. I've got a few ideas, and I want to know what you think. (The following are in alphabetical order because I am going through my iTunes library here.)
1. Something by Beck. Maybe the Speak'n'Spell bit from No Complaints? Or E-Pro?
2. The Bravery - Bad Sun (I'd have the whistling lick from the chorus.)
3. Something by Cake. I'm thinking Commissioning a Symphony in C.
4. Coldplay - Viva la Vida
5. Donavon Frankenreiter - Life, Love and Laughter. (If you don't know who this is, you should look him up.)
6. Jack Johnson? Maybe Hope, or Monsoon, or Bubble Toes, or If I Had Eyes?
7. Led Zeppelin - Black Dog
8. Moby - We Are All Made of Stars
9. Modest Mouse - Float On
10. A little Paolo Nutini?
11. The Republic Tigers - Buildings and Mountains (Another kinda obscure band you should look up.)
12. Snow Patrol?
13. U2. Lots of choices: Elevation, Love and Peace or Else, Where the Streets Have No Name, Pride...
14. The Who - Who Are You. I think this would be apropos. :)
Endorse your favorite or suggest something else!
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March 1st, 2009
10:40 pm - Sucks
Do you know what sucks?
I'll tell you what sucks.
In fact, that's the point of this post, as evidenced by its title.
Now, many things suck, but there's only one thing that I'm kind of on my soapblog about today, and that's the relative unavailability of good classical music.
I know what you're saying. You're saying, "Spencer, what are you talking about? There's a whole radio station full of good classical music right here in the good old SLC." And I don't disagree with you - in fact, you've made my point for me, and I thank you, except it's really me putting words in your mouth, and you've not, in fact, said anything (unless you happen to make random catty remarks aloud while reading other people's blogs, in which case you have more serious problems than a relative unavailability of good classical music - but I digress). My point is that there is ONE classical radio station and like A GRAJILLION other radio stations.
Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike the music that these grajillion other radio stations are playing, it's just like, what do you do when you want to hear some classical music? Well, you switch to Classical 89, of course, but what if it's playing something you don't like so much? Like, there's some sort of Bach playing, and you're just not in a very baroque mood today. It's understandable and it happens to all of us. Nobody is in a baroque mood all the time.
So then what do you do? If you've thought ahead, you have a couple of CD's full of classical music you enjoy, and you throw one of those in. Good thinking! But wait - where did you get those CD's in the first place? I challenge you to think of an even slightly obscure composer or piece and walk into your local music store and find a recording of it. Chances are you won't. For instance, good luck finding, say, some of Grieg's lesser-known works, or pretty much anything by Sibelius. And Gershwin? Unless you're looking for Rhapsody in Blue or Porgy & Bess, you're probably out of luck. Which is totally not the case if you're looking for the High School Musical 3 soundtrack, or the latest release from U2.
So thus I appeal to you, my faithful readers - where can you find good classical music for purchase? I'd prefer something local to SLC, because supporting local businesses is what all the cool kids are doing these days, and if there's a guy who's making a living selling classical music out of some hole in the wall downtown, I want to hear about it, because I am going to go drop like $40 in this guy's store.
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February 26th, 2009
10:13 pm - On stupid questions.
So this week has been full of math homework. I stayed up until about 2AM Monday night/Tuesday morning working on the algebra homework, and until 4AM the next night/day doing the algebraic topology (which was needlessly soul-crushing. So I've mentioned this story to a couple of people, and three or four of them now have asked me something along the lines of, "Wow, so did you really have to stay up that late to do the assignment?"
Now maybe I'm being insensitive, but isn't that a stupid question? "No, not really, I just thought I'd stay up until 4 because I was having so much fun working myself from the 'moderate' to the 'severe' category of sleep deprivation." Or, "No, I just thought it would be fun to see what dawn looks like from the other side." Come on, people. Granted, it's not particularly rational to stay up 'til 4, but I think we can all assume that I'm not irrational enough to stay up any further past midnight than I absolutely have to.
And along those lines, I went to get my hair cut today, and the girl at the haircut place was all, "Do you need a haircut?"
...
"No, it's actually a hobby of mine to randomly frequent hair salons and comment on their interior decorating. You've done great things with color here, and I like the sails motif, but those portraits really need frames."
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February 14th, 2009
12:50 am - I never update this thing.
... So... hi?
I've found that I'm becoming bored with video games. I don't know what it is. I never really thought this would happen, but I'm toying with the idea of like, not playing video games for an extended period of time. And so I'm looking at my schedule, and all this strange excess free time I would suddenly have, and wondering, what do normal people do with all that free time? I don't think I'm grown up enough to just sit down and study yet, but I don't really know what else to do with it. Take up knitting? Get some clay and throw pots? Become an avid bird watcher? Cultivate *gasp* SOCIAL SKILLS, and use them on *double gasp* MARRIAGEABLE FEMALES?!!
Seriously guys, you've gotta help me.
for some reason, the word "marriageable" really strikes my funny bone.
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January 2nd, 2009
10:47 pm - WINNARS
Dear national sports press:
Utah 31, Alabama 17. And don't pull the "Andre Smith was gone" card, because the absence or presence of one more player is not going to prevent EIGHT SACKS - not to mention the fact that the Utah offense scored 21 points in the first quarter. RESPECT.
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December 24th, 2008
11:23 pm - "The cat does sleep a long time."
To brighten up your Christmas Eve, I bring you Mr. Krueger's Christmas!
something in my eye. *snf*
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December 19th, 2008
10:58 pm - Related rates
My brain is approximately the shape of an ellipsoid with major diameter 8", minor diameter 6", and height 3", but for the sake of argument, we'll say it's a right circular cone with radius 6 and height 3. If such a cone was removed from its protective container, slapped down on a table and subjected to approximately 50 calculus finals for 6 hours, it would begin to melt. Experimental data suggests that such melting will cause the height to decrease at a rate of 1/12" per minute. Assuming that no brain cells are actually consumed by the grading process (the volume won't change), what is the rate of change of the radius when the height is 1"?
I think I've actually given enough data to solve this problem.
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December 8th, 2008
05:12 pm - Sugar
All right, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) nin_man, let's do this.
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November 27th, 2008
01:12 am - Oops.
I thought I could sneak in with my stealth ability and solo the boss of Scarlet Monastery without alerting all of his adds.
How wrong I was.
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November 19th, 2008
11:57 pm - Writer's Block: Under the Tree
Is it sad that I'm asking my parents for Dummit and Foote?
And maybe a fish tank.
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November 3rd, 2008
11:32 pm - Lifestyle
As I was kicking back in the recliner after a long hard day of school, homework and grading, relaxing with a Caffeine-Free Diet Coke and watching an episode of NUMB3RS, I reflected on how fundamentally different my lifestyle is from "the norm".
And I'm fine with that. :)
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October 30th, 2008
01:08 am - Late
It's 1:08am, I just finished my analysis homework, I have a pile of probably close to 100 calculus midterms to grade by Monday, and I have a funeral to attend on Saturday, for which I am apparently playing a piano number.
Yeah my weekend's gonna be fun.
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September 25th, 2008
10:28 pm - EPIC WIN pt. 2
#1 USC 21, Oregon State... 27! YEEAAAHHH!!!!
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September 23rd, 2008
12:23 am - EPIC WIN
Today, I:
1) Got paid
2) Took my black suit coat to get it altered to fit more better
3) Finished my algebra homework (w00!)
4) Finished grading for the one Foundations class
5) Started AND finished my complex variables homework
6) Biked down a huge hill
All of these are in chronological order, except for one. Can you guess which element is out of order, and where it should really go?
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September 22nd, 2008
11:00 pm - Adventures in grading, pt. 2
You may remember that I recently accepted a job as a grader in the math department, and that I endeavor to post about my experiences grading.
Today's post is in response to FAR too many of the students whose work I am forced to wade through, decipher their crappy handwriting (guilty as charged, but AT LEAST I TRY TO MAKE IT LEGIBLE!!!), diagnose the malfunction in their argument, and come up with a coherent reason why their "proof" is bogus:
Go away, and take your stupid with you.
bitter? me? no, never.
Current Mood: ~X[
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September 18th, 2008
07:52 pm - Buyer's Remorse
So today on my way home from the university, I decided to stop by the local music store and pick up a Snow Patrol CD. I like the Snow Patrol CD I have, I reasoned, so I will probably like whichever other Snow Patrol CD I end up buying. So I used about thirteen of my hard-earned tutoring dollars to purchase Songs for Polarbears, which I believe is their third effort (I own their sophomore album, Final Straw, which I hold to be musical genius).
As I was walking back out to my car, trying to free the music from its plastic-wrapped confinement, the thought momentarily crossed my mind that CD's are kinda like cars, inasmuch as the moment you drive them off the lot (or, as it were, open the plastic wrap), they lose unreasonable amounts of value. I shrugged the thought off, though, fully expecting to enjoy the music, and never expecting to want to return it.
Well, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, I was wrong.
I put the CD in the car's CD player and pulled out the liner notes to do my customary glance over the lyrics. I like lyrics, in general. They are often the finest poetry the modern day has to offer. But, speaking as a man of religious and moral convictions, they are often objectionable. I was rather surprised to find that this was the case with Songs for Polarbears - my cursory examination revealed two instances of the "f-bomb", as the kids are saying these days, as well as sexual innuendo out the wazoo. That gives the album an immediate black mark in my book, because I simply don't enjoy listening to people swear at me, no matter how good the music is.
Which brings me neatly to my next point. It's not that good. The music, that is. I'm up to track 11 now (of 23 - you have to give them credit for trying), and I still haven't heard a song I genuinely like. The magic of Final Straw is distressingly absent. I can't put my finger on what's missing, or perhaps what there's too much of, but I am not enjoying the sound. It's like suddenly they revived Nirvana in their more sedate moments, and I keep hearing things that remind me of Death Cab for Cutie, but I'd really rather listen to the Death Cab song the Snow Patrol song reminds me of.
And so, I have buyer's remorse. But the worst part is, because I was kinda dumb and didn't do the proper iTunes-assisted research beforehand, I'm out $13, and I can't get a full refund. I doubt that I can even exchange it straight across for something I might like better. So I'm up a creek, but at least I can warn other people not to direct their watercraft up this particular creek.
(Apparently I'm just not a polarbear)
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September 6th, 2008
10:19 am - A mathematical observation.
First of all, any subgroup of index 2 must be normal, so if 2 divides the order of a finite group G and you have an element of order |G|/2, G is not simple.
Secondly, and the *real* point of this post, mathematicians say "let" a lot, as in, "Let x be an element of G." It's entirely possible to read a proof as having a rather bossy tone: "Let x be in G. Don't you DARE not let x in G. Take H = {e,x,x2,...} - Come on! TAKE IT!! Note that H is cyclic - and if you don't note it, you will be dealt with harshly." I wonder if anyone cowers when they read proofs because the tone interpretation section of their brain is a little bit broken.
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September 3rd, 2008
11:37 pm - The inaugural homework grading post
I recently accepted a job as a grader for a math class, Foundations of Analysis I. I will be grading papers on a weekly basis, and will probably post something about it each week. Here's this week's entry.
One guy had some totally bogus answer to a question, but then redeemed some style points by writing: "How did I misunderstand the question so badly?" It is followed by a correct statement of the answer (though without proof), written in a hand that suggests it is a last-minute addition to the previously "solved" problem.
Another guy gets style points for entitling an answer: "[LastName]'s Theorem".
Another guy loses style points (and points points) for writing the following after a completely bogus set-theoretic argument: "Therefore, they have the same sets" (speaking of two sets). ... ??
List of albums listened to while grading (or, I should add, just doing homework earlier):
U2 - Achtung Baby
U2 - Zooropa
U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind
Snow Patrol - Final Straw
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (It contains the incredibly apropos track Brain Damage)
Moby - 18
Hours spent grading: 3.5
Brain status after grading: Osterizer'd mush
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