Okay, maybe I'm not ready to talk about that yet, but I'm really hoping I don't have to write a post next week using TVotR's DLZ for my post title.
What I will tell you is this: Occasionally, I leave on music while I do yoga. The routine I did tonight starts with breathing, followed by sun salutations and then starts with the Warrior series. Just as I step in to Warrior I, iTunes shuffled on to Sevendust. It's an interesting experience. It's now moved on to The Vandal's Euro-barge and that always reminds me of Scott Deur and so I have to laugh.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Somebody smart said nothing at all
Unfortunately, that somebody smart isn't me.
About six months ago, the paper based off of my dissertation was accepted by Mathematics of Computation which is a journal put out by the American Mathematical Society. I had noticed since then that the paper had not been even listed as a pre-print on their site, much less actually published. I contacted Andrew to see if this was an issue and he was surprised by it. I was in the drawn out process (read: stalling) on constructing an email to send MCOM to see if they had gotten everything all right. My stalling was successful as I was contacted last week about my home address so they could send me a galley proof for final edits. I worked through them this past weekend and mostly just cringed at all of the comma splices. There were really only two major errors - an extra parenthesis and a random exclamation point.
The most interesting part of going back through the paper was the immediate realization that I would have given up on reading the paper by the second page had I not written the darn thing. Without the two years of working on that problem, I would have had no idea what was going on and it would have been over my head. I'm impressed with how much good, legit mathematics was involved in that paper. It'll be fun for me to link to it on the AU twitter account so nobody can read it, much less understand it; just like my dissertation.
Finally, the AU math department may start producing YouTube like videos for RedOrbit soon. I'll be filming the pilot tomorrow covering the Futurama Theorem. If this goes really well, I might actually be seen on the internet. It may also go very poorly and I might look like a total doofus on the internet. If that's the case, I won't be sending you the link.
About six months ago, the paper based off of my dissertation was accepted by Mathematics of Computation which is a journal put out by the American Mathematical Society. I had noticed since then that the paper had not been even listed as a pre-print on their site, much less actually published. I contacted Andrew to see if this was an issue and he was surprised by it. I was in the drawn out process (read: stalling) on constructing an email to send MCOM to see if they had gotten everything all right. My stalling was successful as I was contacted last week about my home address so they could send me a galley proof for final edits. I worked through them this past weekend and mostly just cringed at all of the comma splices. There were really only two major errors - an extra parenthesis and a random exclamation point.
The most interesting part of going back through the paper was the immediate realization that I would have given up on reading the paper by the second page had I not written the darn thing. Without the two years of working on that problem, I would have had no idea what was going on and it would have been over my head. I'm impressed with how much good, legit mathematics was involved in that paper. It'll be fun for me to link to it on the AU twitter account so nobody can read it, much less understand it; just like my dissertation.
Finally, the AU math department may start producing YouTube like videos for RedOrbit soon. I'll be filming the pilot tomorrow covering the Futurama Theorem. If this goes really well, I might actually be seen on the internet. It may also go very poorly and I might look like a total doofus on the internet. If that's the case, I won't be sending you the link.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
I just wanna see some sunshine
Julie and Lisa are off gallivanting about Australia while I'm stuck here in Indiana with its consistent temperatures below zero during my morning running times. I know I just need to be patient as my turn will come in a month when I jet off to Puerto Rico for spring break. I'm just sick of winter, much like everyone else in the Midwest is. Having a friend at the University of Georgia tell you that she got two days off because of ice doesn't help when you've been living in an ice world for the past two months.
I do worry about how this will affect May's Indy Mini. I had to miss a couple of weeks in January because of the cold and my loathing of treadmills, but I've been able to get into a little bit. I skipped Tuesday and today, but yesterday was a good run since I was able to go in the afternoon. I will make sure to knock out a 10 miler on Saturday so its not as if I'm significantly off in terms of distance. However, being able to comfortably maintain decent speed through that distance is another thing. I don't think I'd be happy averaging an eight minute mile during the actual race, even though that's what I'm putting in now for 6-8 mile runs. The good news is though that I don't expect the race in May to have icy footing, so that should be a boon. Further, my training for last fall's half was decent, but not spectacular and I still ran 1:38:18 despite 40 degree rain and a stupid hill on mile ten. The conditions should definitely be better, but the lack of a pacer will likely hurt me as now I have to monitor my own pace and the runs become tougher when I have to think about anything related to the run instead of just turning my mind off and letting things flow. There's a special medal awarded to anyone who finishes in the top 500. My goal is to crack the top 1000. Last year, 30,000 people ran the Mini and top 500 cutoff was around a 6:58 pace. The top 1000 line was right around 1:37 or so which correlates to about a 7:25 pace which I know I can do based off my 25k p.r. That's what I'm up against. There are times when I still hate having to go run four times a week, but there are still times I get out there and I really want to do another full marathon in the next year or two.
All said, February has been a better month than January. I've run more, worked out more, eaten better and its been a week and a half since my last drink. My finances are looking better and that's without even considering the extra pay I'll get from this night class.
I do worry about how this will affect May's Indy Mini. I had to miss a couple of weeks in January because of the cold and my loathing of treadmills, but I've been able to get into a little bit. I skipped Tuesday and today, but yesterday was a good run since I was able to go in the afternoon. I will make sure to knock out a 10 miler on Saturday so its not as if I'm significantly off in terms of distance. However, being able to comfortably maintain decent speed through that distance is another thing. I don't think I'd be happy averaging an eight minute mile during the actual race, even though that's what I'm putting in now for 6-8 mile runs. The good news is though that I don't expect the race in May to have icy footing, so that should be a boon. Further, my training for last fall's half was decent, but not spectacular and I still ran 1:38:18 despite 40 degree rain and a stupid hill on mile ten. The conditions should definitely be better, but the lack of a pacer will likely hurt me as now I have to monitor my own pace and the runs become tougher when I have to think about anything related to the run instead of just turning my mind off and letting things flow. There's a special medal awarded to anyone who finishes in the top 500. My goal is to crack the top 1000. Last year, 30,000 people ran the Mini and top 500 cutoff was around a 6:58 pace. The top 1000 line was right around 1:37 or so which correlates to about a 7:25 pace which I know I can do based off my 25k p.r. That's what I'm up against. There are times when I still hate having to go run four times a week, but there are still times I get out there and I really want to do another full marathon in the next year or two.
All said, February has been a better month than January. I've run more, worked out more, eaten better and its been a week and a half since my last drink. My finances are looking better and that's without even considering the extra pay I'll get from this night class.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
And if you can't get what you want, well its all because of me.
Its nearly 10:00 on February first so this is about as close as I'm going to get to the 1/12th mark of the year and its time to give an update on my New Year's resolutions so far. As I posted on facebook, this year's goals are to 'Work harder, play harder, travel more, read more, drink better beer.' Let's take them one at a time.
1) Work harder. So far, not much of a success. My three main goals of this were to get in better shape, do extra work at AU so I could afford to travel more and to get back into some actual mathematical research. The idea that I'm in better shape is laughable right now, but a good part of that has been the polar vertex making running an afterthought. I did get our for a five mile run this morning though. I've found something worse than running on snow though. This morning's run was on snow and slush with an intermittent 35 degree drizzle and half the dogs in the neighborhood out running free. Even better, my knee started screaming after about four and a half miles so an intended six mile run became a five miler. The extra work idea has been achieved though. My finite class at night isn't really convenient to some of the things I want to do, but I can be inconvenienced twice a week for three months for an extra couple grand. The fact that I'm now teaching 14 credits does hurt my ability to do research as I have no free time so that's being put off until the summer. I have talked to Andrew about extending SDC so hopefully I can make progress on that.
2) Play harder. I'm giving myself a pass for now. Once again, an actual winter has been a huge impediment to this goal. This is definitely something that will come later in the year though with my current plans to hit San Juan, Las Vegas, Zion NP, Bryce Canyon, Red River Gorge, Mammoth Cave, Seattle and Portland followed by a week of relaxing out at Menninga Island.
3) Travel more. The furthest I've gone since January 2nd has been the 15 mile drive out to church. I did buy my ticket for Puerto Rico though so I've committed to this though.
4) Read more. Hooray! A goal I've actually worked on so far. I finished A.J. Jacobs' Drop Dead Healthy, Chris Kyle's American Sniper, Belinda Bauer's Blacklands, Simon Singh's The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets, and most of Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. All told, I've probably gone through about 1350 pages in the month.
5) Drink better beer. Ha! Sigh. Such incredible failure. Things aren't going to be any better for February as I'm out of beer and I've sworn off buying booze until at least Spring Break in an effort to rectify point number one.
1) Work harder. So far, not much of a success. My three main goals of this were to get in better shape, do extra work at AU so I could afford to travel more and to get back into some actual mathematical research. The idea that I'm in better shape is laughable right now, but a good part of that has been the polar vertex making running an afterthought. I did get our for a five mile run this morning though. I've found something worse than running on snow though. This morning's run was on snow and slush with an intermittent 35 degree drizzle and half the dogs in the neighborhood out running free. Even better, my knee started screaming after about four and a half miles so an intended six mile run became a five miler. The extra work idea has been achieved though. My finite class at night isn't really convenient to some of the things I want to do, but I can be inconvenienced twice a week for three months for an extra couple grand. The fact that I'm now teaching 14 credits does hurt my ability to do research as I have no free time so that's being put off until the summer. I have talked to Andrew about extending SDC so hopefully I can make progress on that.
2) Play harder. I'm giving myself a pass for now. Once again, an actual winter has been a huge impediment to this goal. This is definitely something that will come later in the year though with my current plans to hit San Juan, Las Vegas, Zion NP, Bryce Canyon, Red River Gorge, Mammoth Cave, Seattle and Portland followed by a week of relaxing out at Menninga Island.
3) Travel more. The furthest I've gone since January 2nd has been the 15 mile drive out to church. I did buy my ticket for Puerto Rico though so I've committed to this though.
4) Read more. Hooray! A goal I've actually worked on so far. I finished A.J. Jacobs' Drop Dead Healthy, Chris Kyle's American Sniper, Belinda Bauer's Blacklands, Simon Singh's The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets, and most of Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. All told, I've probably gone through about 1350 pages in the month.
5) Drink better beer. Ha! Sigh. Such incredible failure. Things aren't going to be any better for February as I'm out of beer and I've sworn off buying booze until at least Spring Break in an effort to rectify point number one.
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