Numerical Analysis

Numerical Analysis is not a hard subject. It's a hard class because it's hard to care about it enough to read ahead and learn on your own, because Costello isn't teaching... he's just babbling about how this subject doesn't get the respect it deserves. At least I can just open my laptop and do the homework or make a quick blog post.

Sweet Nothings of Violence

I suppose people may find it strange when overhearing most conversations I have with my friends. Most involve the phrases "I'm going to kill you," "Why don't you just die?" or "I hate you." It just shows how much we care, or that I don't really have any friends.

A Variation of Proof

I'm taking two graph theory courses this semester, one from the math department with Judy Walker and another from the computer science department with Jitender Deogun. It's both fun and confusing to notice the difference in their proof styles.

You can tell Walker is a mathematician: she uses past knowledge to reduce a problem to something easy to prove. (Method: Setup : Theorem : Ingenuity).

You can tell Deogun is a computer scientist: he uses ingenuity to reduce a problem to something already solved. (Method: Setup : Ingenuity : Theorem).

Both are entirely valid methods. Walker likes to put forth a constructive, well-organized argument, and Deogun likes to say "Can you see that we are done?"

Congrats are in order

My friend Matthew Beermann recently bought a house. Congratulations. He's a homeowner.

That's funny to me.

Roomate: Choking Hazard

My roommate went to the hospital last night because he got a piece of steak stuck in his esophagus. Apparently, his esophagus is much smaller than a normal person's and it must be stretched by an operation involving a big balloon. When asked why he didn't notice this before, he said "Well, I'd get something stuck there every once and a while, but it was only for a second or two. Oh, that's not normal? My parents said it was..." I guess it runs in the family.

An In?

In my search for the location of my graduate education, I always find Carnegie-Mellon University to be the best option. However, being tied with MIT and Stanford for the best US Ph.D. programs in Computer Science, the competition for CMU will be tough. I recently found out that Lenore Blum, a prominent member of the computer science department at CMU. Because my graph theory professor, Judy Walker, is a major force in putting this conference together, she may be able to introduce me (if I can't get the guts to introduce myself during the several chance I will have). If anything, I'd like the opportunity to email her later saying, "I'm that guy you met at UNL, can I ask you some questions?"

The older I get, the more I realize that it really is who you know, not what you know (both, preferrably).

Snow!

There has been no snow here in Nebraska for over a month and today it finally snowed. There have been several really cold days, and occasionally really warm, but mostly cold. Cold isn't worth it unless there's at least 6 inches of snow on the ground.

Revert to School Mode: Engage

I find it hard to get back into school mode after such a wacky 3-day weekend and a half-day. I finished my homework for tomorrow fast enough, but haven't been movitated gettng ahead. Maybe next week. This week I'll just stay up to date long enough to make it to the weekend. As my design studio project nears the Construction phase, I'll be working more and more on that until the end of the year. I'm still a little worn out from the race, so I'd better get some sleep.

A Joke My Dad Would Like

I always enjoy blonde jokes. The blonde demographic can accept the worst criticism (hairism?) and still not create an action coalition to stop it. Here is a hilarious example of a great blonde joke.

Blogger Sadness

I was going to post the last update sooner, but Blogger was giving me trouble on the posting page. Sorry.

Finished

We finished the race, and I immediately slept through all of today's sunlight. I'm glad others were there to help, especially during the last few hours, when I was too incoherent to drive successfully. I raced over 101 laps of this 12.89 mile course, Nürburgring. Check This video on Google to see what this course is like. All of it is exactly the same except the very beginning and end. It's sad that I have absolutely memorized the entire course and could run someone through every turn in order with precise information (like when to brake/accelerate, what gear is necessary, what would happen if you mess it up, how the wheel will react, etc.). I think I will have no problem waiting until spring break to do the other two, and then I'll allow pausing.

Overall, I've gained 1.2 million credits, an Indy car, and many l33t points, a series/movie recap of Firefly, and a very exciting weekend.

Success

That was a long, and tiring venture. I'll talk about it when I feel like waking up.

First Shift Impressions

After taking a restart (due to improper tires) and my first shift, I'm realizing that this race is not going to be as easy as the 4-hour race. All the other cars are race-worthy cars with really good drivers who pit half as often as we do. This will be a fun day, for sure. Lots of tension.

And so it begins

I'm trying to start the clock right at 7AM, so that gives me just enough time to make a quick post. Wish (all of) us luck.

The Night Before

Tomorrow begins our 24 hour endurance race. A few of us practiced with the 4 hour race on the same track to warm up to the idea. Overall, it's looking to be really exciting. The laps are long enough that three-lap pit rotations are almost too short. A few competitions have been made to keep us interested, including fastest lap time and pushing a cone as far as possible. Also, a Firefly + Serenity marathon will be taking place in the background on my relocated computer. I'll try to post some updates durning breaks and between discs.

A New Time Sink

The recent holidays left me a few gift cards richer (thanks Mom & Dad, Grandpa & Boots, and Grandma!) to which I spent towards my new favorite use of my time: Gran Tourismo 4 and a force-feedback racing wheel. With this racing wheel and pedal set installed in front of my TV, it really feels like you're driving. The wheel has motors in it to provide resistance when steering, to feel like there is actually a car behind it. It's especially fun when driving rally races or when spinning out. The addictive nature of the GT series has only gotten worse with this extra feature.

Also, MLK weekend is rapidly approaching, and some friends and I decided that we are going to take shifts on a 24-hour endurance race without pause. Normally, I'd just pause the game and take lots of breaks. That's not going to happen. Pit stops will be the only way to relieve yourself of the driving wheel. This works out well because one guy who may do it is currently working on his Polyphasic Sleep experiment and everyone else is just going to sleep in the next day. I'm looking forward to this venture, but we're only halfway to unlocking this race (requires 25% completion of all goals... yikes) but making good progress.

This also gets out all of my fast driving urges that I get all the time and haven't acted on in the last three years. Really... I've been a good boy. Now let me have my toys.

A Short NP-Completeness Proof

Prove: Waking up is NP-Complete.

Proof:Waking up is NP-Complete iff Waking up is NP-Hard and polynomial-time reducible to CNF.

The lower bound of the most efficient algorithm is 2ⁿ and rapidly approaching intractibility. Waking up is NP-Hard.

Every instance of waking up adds a few new cases of whether or not I will actually get out of bed. That is, if those cases can be organized in order to make a Conjunctive-Normal-Form decidability problem. If the cases can be modified to make the full statement true, CNF is satisfied and I will wake up. QED.

Abscence, and Possible Return

I've spent the last week in Utah, skiing with the family. I took a break from blogging on purpose, but I have now returned to school. I need to finish waking up, watch last Friday's Battlestar and play some Gran Tourismo 4 and then I may think about blogging some more. School is starting again, I'll have plenty of things to blog about in order to procrastinate from what I should be doing.