i prefer pi

Of the 54 films nominated for Academy Awards this year, I saw only five of them: I, Robot (on DVD), The Incredibles, Shrek 2, Spider-man 2, and The Village. Beyond those, I think that I only saw two other films in the theater during 2004: The Manchurian Candidate and Van Helsing (which still holds the dubious distinction of being the worst film I’ve ever paid money to see). What about you?

I took to cleaning up my “pantry” a little while ago (anything to avoid studying!) and came upon a half of a loaf of bread hiding behind a stack of ramen noodles. The date on the bag says “Jan 18,” which was nearly five weeks ago, but to my surprise, the loaf is still fresh and non-moldy. I pulled two slices out and made a sandwich. Tres bien.

EDIT: Also, the Meqon physics demo sucked up waay too much of my time this afternoon.

I did it! I participated in Kyle Field Ramp Romp XIV this morning, and finished the 5K run up and down the ramps in 24:47. It’s amazing what the race adrenaline did for my time, because I’ve been doing 3-mile runs at the track at the Rec in about 27:30 this past week. My first mile time was 7:02, so I’ve got some work to do on my endurance. Mad props to Dimitri, who finished first in his age division (25-29) in 21:something. I’m stoked!

In case anyone was wondering (I know, I know, you weren’t), my favorite radio station is still StreamingSoundtracks.com. I was seized with an intense desire to let everyone know about it a few minutes ago; imagine my surprise, therefore, when I discovered that I first posted about it a year ago yesterday. Given the similarities between my entry yesterday and my entry from last year, I’d say that I must have exhausted my supply of interesting things to say (or at least interesting ways of saying them). I guess you can stop paying attention to me now…

During my momentary hiatus from PoliSci studying, I discovered that Danica McKellar, who played Gwendoline “Winnie” Cooper on the criminally-undersyndicated dramedy The Wonder Years, graduated with a BS in Mathematics from UCLA, where she published a proof entitled Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin–Teller models on Z². I think I’m in love.

Recall that AARP is the American Association for Retired Persons, the primary advocacy group for people over 50 years old, then read the following quote from today’s New York Times article entitled “A New Target for Advisers to Swift Vets” (emphasis mine):

“[The AARP] are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts,” said Charlie Jarvis, president of USA Next and former deputy under secretary of the interior in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. “We will be the dynamite that removes them.”

Does this not sound gruesome to anyone else?

You know that you’re in for a late night when your textbook says “The proof of this problem, if done correctly, will be infinite.” Anyone else had any similar “Uh-oh.” moments lately?

Time.com currently has an article about “The Four Immigrants Manga,” a manga (japanese comic) published in the early 1930’s. It recounts the story of four Japanese immigrants new to San Francisco and their experiences in living through most of the major events of the first decades of the 20th century. The library here at A&M has a copy, which I read two summers ago, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone.

This has been a frustrating weekend. I should have gone home.

Blast! I ruefully wish that I had not foolishly squandered my quarters on frivolities like M&Ms. Time for a trip to the MSC…