Yoda Revisits the Good Ole Days

This year for Halloween, Sonic and I wanted to be Jedi Masters.

I made awesome cloaks and we made awesome Jedis, but we came up against some life questions.

Who was Yoda's master?

What race was Yoda?

What was Yoda like as a kid?

I did some research and found some answers to these Great Questions:

N'Kata Del Gormo found Yoda and recognized his force-abilities and became Yoda's teacher.

No one has ever known what race Yoda is, and no one knows if he has always been green and small and wrinkly. Yoda does not speak of his youth, but we here agree that he must have always been awesome.

So I'd like to have a moment of silence for the life of Yoda.



Thank you.

So yea... 200 days until Graduation!

As you can see by the countdown ticker on the sidebar... we have 200 days until May 14th! Graduation! AHHHHHHHH!

Well, its not that bad.

I have been a little freaked out this week because of the unfinished state of my math senior project (aka my comp). I had not planned on studying complex topology at the beginning of the semester and if you know anything about mathematics, complex topology is not the easiest advanced mathematical branch out there. The topic has the nice and unassuming title of Escher's Complex Twist and basically is looking at the mathematics behind this picture:

The paper I am working off of has this great site with lots of pretty pictures:

<"http://escherdroste.math.leidenuniv.nl/">

For those of you who do know something about mathematics, my goal is to be able to explain the following two definitions and show how they can help create the picture from a basic straight picture.

If E is a simply connected space, and if p mapping E to B is a covering map,

then we say that E is a universal covering space of B.

And

Let p map E to B. If f is a continuous mapping of some space X

into B, a lifting of f is a map  f' mapping X to E such that p composed with f '= f.

Lots of fun! But seriously, I am looking forward to graduation even if it means meeting the unknown of what comes after an undergrad education.

11001000 Days and Counting...

We have reached a milestone in our countdown to graduation. 200 (or 11001000 for all you genuine computer scientists out there) days left until we (hopefully) walk across that stage. It seems like so little time, but before it's all said and done we will have filled out countless grad school applications, thought many times about how we'd never be able to finish our comps, finished our comps any way, and fulfilled any last minute credit requirements.

My comp is pretty much in full swing at this point. My final proposal is due next week, so I shall hopefully soon be given the full go ahead nod. Then I may just hide away and not see sunlight for 200 days.

With only so much time left and quite enough to do, I only hope I can keep my focu-- oooh look! Swedish fish!

Darn You Blue Screen of Death!

Like most people I know, sometimes I have a hard time dealing with unwanted personal change.

Like the death of my laptop.

My personal computing companion of four years has made it known that it wants retirement and it wants it now. So after some internal struggle (and contemplation of financial struggle), I gave it its desires: retirement with a pension program to keep it happily living out the rest of its days.

So, I'd like to introduce you all to EmmaCassandra.



My lovely brown Asus K25 Notebook.

I now I learn the joys of a split personality computer using Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows 7.
May our next few years together be blessed.
Amen.

Harry Potter Rises From the Dead, Defeats Evil, Wants a Sandwich...

Recently, Yoda and I have have finished our latest reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. There were many good memories and things that we didn't catch in our first read-throughs. However, one part stands out the most: the last line of the entire series (minus the epilogue). Harry has just survived the horrific Battle of Hogwarts (of which many of his companions did not), survived the Avada Kedavra Curse again, and vanquished the most evil dark wizard of all time. He then ignores all of his celebrating and grieving supporters, barely explains himself to Ron and Hermione, and hardly thinks about Ginny. All he wants is a freaking sandwich! In bed! Made by his house elf! WTH?

So this has lead to multiple discussions about men and their sandwiches. Why are sandwiches so important to men? And why can't they make their own damn sandwiches?!

After a little research, we realized we weren't the only ones questioning the ending of this widely popular seven-part series. Here's a link to another confounded reader.
Quite a ridiculous way to end a series such as this, if you ask me. It also has me wondering about Harry and Ginny's future relationship. Does she ever make him a sandwich?

(Also, we would like to give a shout out to Hermione's amazingly awesome beaded bag which is a key element in the book. Yoda's infinite wisdom: "That beaded bag has more appearances than Ginny.")

Some other references to add to the men-and-their-sandwiches discussion include xkcd, which includes this strip:


A consistent battle has been ongoing on the site dearblankpleaseblank.com. This site allows users to submit short letters addressed to anyone or thing and sign it as anyone or thing.
This letter appeared in the stream:

Dear girls,
If you can read this, make me a sammich.
Sincerely, a boy.

It was followed by these come-backs:

Dear Men,
Please shut up and make your own damn sandwich. Last time I checked you didn't have anything else to do.
Sincerely, I'll Throw the Sandwich in Your Face.

Dear guys who work at Subway,
Look who's making the 'sammich' now.
Sincerely, Girls.

One point of note I would like to make here: Besides the fact that men are obsessed with their sandwiches, why do they insist on spelling it wrong? What the heck is a "sammich?"

There is also one entity not yet considered in this discussion: the sandwich itself. How does it feel about being thrown into this ridiculous vortex of gender roles?

A few dearblankpleaseblank users have considered this:

Dear Sammich,
We didn't mean for you to get caught up in the middle of all this...
Sincerely, Boys and Girls.

Dear Guys and Girls,
I never meant for all this fighting. I just want everyone to get along.
Sincerely, Sammich.

Hmm, I wonder what the genders were of these two posters.

The question also still stands as to why men can't go and make their own damn sandwiches. Here is a man's point of view. This just shows that a man lacks the ability to focus long enough to make sandwiches. Why is this our, the women's, fault?

From a women's point of view (or at least this one's): I don't think that a woman making a man a sandwich is a completely unacceptable situation. The problems arise when the man demands the sandwich out of an attempt of power and pure laziness. A please and thank you would be nice.

There are women who are repelling these demeaning demands. Here is an example of a joke in the opposite direction:

UPDATE:

This post recently arrived on dearblankpleaseblank and I thought it needed mentioning here:

Dear Husband,
I'll make you a sandwich as soon as you bring home some bacon...
Sincerely, Your Wife

That's right!

Please Don't Turn Us In For Kidnapping...

I do not think either of the authors of this esteemed blog are in any position to comment on the state of this world under the indirect control of the internet monstrosities, Facebook and Google. However, I do venture to say that sometimes it is prudent to be wary of what one leaves as a status for other people to read. 

Obviously this comes from personal experience and as such, I will henceforth relate the adventures of Friday Night.

At around 1:30pm Friday afternoon boredom and confusion as to the day's plans were getting me down. So I did a pretty normal thing for my listing state, I started surfing Facebook's news networks channels. Lo and Behold, I came across Our Beloved Ewok's most recent status update: "Would someone please come kidnap me?" Forget docile light bulbs; there were major fireworks erupting from my brain.

First I assembled my team: Sonic and Captain Reynolds were in. (Of course, we had to wait for Sonic to finish class (who has class until 4:30pm on Fridays, seriously?).)

Next I assembled the equipment: One Nerf N-Strike Raider Rapid Fire CS 35 (look it up, it's completely awesome), one Green Lightsaber, one Red F150, four Apples to Apples Green Cards, four Personally Made Chinese Fortune Tellers and one Personal Goodie Bag.

 

The actual entering strategy was created and discussed on the ride into the vicinity of Our Beloved Ewok Friend. The Strike Team was prepared for three possible situations; however, they were not prepared for the "Just stepped out of the shower" situation they came up against. Thankfully though, the kidnapping was carried out without any extra victims.

After the successful retrieval, the group went to Perkins for a quick banquet.

The elder company at the banquet was almost more than could be handled, but after cleaning up the table and  a small mix-up with the F150 and a flag pole wire, the group was on their way again.

The Apples to Apples cards and Chinese Fortune Tellers were to determine the later activities of the night. Despite this preparation, all order was flung into the wind and the group retired to the local bowling alley for some Black Light Bowling. The competition was fierce between Sonic, Captain Reynolds and Our Beloved Ewok Friend. I, Yoda, am above such competition. (Well, actually, without the use of my right arm, my left handed bowling is not quite as impressive as my normal game.)

A good time was had by all, despite the leaving of Our Beloved Ewok Friend's sunglasses and car keys in the F150 after her return to her normal domain. 

Just before someone gets nervous do they experience cocoons in their stomachs?

After some thought, its obvious. The answer must be yes. The cycle is well known after all: first comes the egg, then the caterpillar, then the cocoon (or scientifically: chrysalis), then the butterfly. You can't have butterflies without the previous three chains in the life cycle.
The prevailing thought must conclusively be that people accidentally eat the eggs. Next, the caterpillars are born and that is when you can experience the having-creepy-crawling-things-in-your-stomach feeling, because you do in fact have crawling things in your stomach. After the caterpillars have munched enough on your enjoyed salad lunch, they cocoon themselves. However since cocoons do not do much, you do not notice them hanging around in your stomach. You only get to relish the whole experience when the butterflies emerge!

But, how do they manage to time this cycle perfectly with when you get nervous?

A Collection of Over Two Thousand Geeky Women...

Last week I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference in Atlanta. It was quite an adventure. Once we arrived at the airport we needed to find a way to our hotel. So, we took the subway. It was a bit scary; there were multiple signs for what to do if you feel like you are in a dangerous situation. Not exactly reassuring. Although it was a bit more comforting when one man was able to gather quite a few people for a sing-a-long. Once on the street we wandered around until finding the hotel.

The hotel was, to say the least, glamorous. Story after story after story. And the elevator walls were glass, which made it quite fun to ride down from the 12th floor. I had to remind myself that I am an adult now in order to prevent myself from continuously riding the elevator more than necessary.

The actual conference was very nice as well. There were plenty of good presentations and discussions to attend, and more free stuff than one could ever imagine... One company even gave me a laundry bag. I mean, really?

Meeting all the people was very interesting. I met one girl who called our project "pretty epic" and was quite excited to find that we had named our printer R2 and boasted that her lab contained a cardboard cutout of Han Solo in carbonite. Pretty jealous I am.

To close out my adventure, I went to a dance that they held for all the attendees of the conference, almost all women. Let me tell you, watching 100s of very nerdy and professional women dance to Party in the USA and form a gigantic conga line is something you don't see everyday...

Sonic's Star Wars Spectacular!

So Sonic's birthday was last week and in celebration of her birthday

the sun came out today!

 

Well, okay, perhaps that is not the real reason the sun decided to come out today,

but after at least 6 days of rain in this town, 

everyone was a little excited to see it.

On to her birthday!

The Theme for the week was Star Wars because she had a project last year and this summer to build a 3D printer who ended up with the name R2

In coordination with the theme Sonic was given R2D2 Trouble, the Lego Luke's Landcrusier, and of course, a Lightsaber.

And some pretty sweet cards and clues to her gifts.

One can always depend on R2 to save the day!

(May the Force be with you!)

"This Magic Moment..."

 Today is just a string of cool pictures from the last month. I am sorry some of the them are sideways; I failed to rotate them before adding them to blogger.

Alpaca!

 If you can't read this bulletin, it says:

"This is a Velociraptor-free workplace.

It has proudly been
3
days since the last Velociraptor incident."

I think they are actually up to 6 or 7 days now. We support their mission! Hang in there!


Obviously an Episcopalian Church door. It was pretty.

This is an awesomely painted picture 

Sonic, Captain Reynolds and I saw at an art show.

 The computer science department has a Final Exam Poster which includes this section. Can you finish this in the fifteen minutes alloted?

Fall has come!

Enjoy your Saturday everyone!

PS. I think I have changed the settings so that anyone can comment irregardless of registered Blogger ID. Would someone give it a try?