I confess to secretly checking this blog without posting. Shamed, I'm coming out with my hands behind my head. (and yes, whatever I say or do can and should be held against me)

First, to answer Tae-Yeoun's question: eigenvectors and eigenvalues are related to solving matrices, or systems of equations. Let's say that for some transformational matrix--matrix "A"--changes a variable x to a variable y. We can write this like:

Ax ---> y

For some special X's (which can be linear expressions, like 2w + 3, 4, or 3w - 5q), y is a numerical multiple of x. Let's call this numerical multiple, or scalar, "K." Hence, for a specific X,

AX --->KX

In this case, the eigenvector is X, and the eigenvalue is K. Finding eigenvectors and eigenvalues of systems of equations expedites the process of finding their solutions. Sorry for the didactic post--I'm sure someone else can explain it more clearly.

Moving out of math, I returned to Boston from China last week to finish my lab work. China was amazing...

I feel compelled to put up a poem to compensate for the science-dork-nasal-tone of my post (yes, I'm typing this in lab.) But, alas, the lab has no poetry. Someone please post something literary before I lose it all and start enjoying the soft humming sound of the centrifuge.

posted by Eunice   [3:22 PM]

Eunice, Natashia, Kelsey, or any of you math people out there: what are eigenvalues and eigenvectors?

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [6:49 AM]

First of all, who ever recommended Flatland to the list, thankyou. it was great. It was too short, and makes me really wish I could imagine what the sum of all spheres could look like. Speaking of Relativity, trying to "see" things described by math frustrates the mind.

so I was flying from Chicago to Orlando on southwest, and ended up sitting next to this patriot dude, who asked about the book I was reading. He spoke like a mild skeptic, but there was a conservative religious undertook to his voice that was kinda like "You're hair is far too big, and I don't like the look of those pants, and what you're talking about isn't right because it makes questionable my foundations in life." The dude somehow ended every argument with "and that's what makes America Great" even if we were talking about "how we know or don't know the number of dimensions in existence." It was odd. We talked about China and India for a while too. He had been all over Europe and Asia, but I had the impression that he didn't like the dirt in dirty places. Nice guy though.

If I believed in Math, I wouldn't know how many dimensions there are, luckily dimensions are only a little more real than "seven" and a little less real than 'Orange'...Though orange is far more subjective and fickle (since you can get away with calling most yellows or reds a shade of orange).

A word of advice to all; if a girl asks you "so where does this put you and me" the correct answer isn't "It doesn't really matter to me" ... A better answer that says almost the same thing is "where ever you think is right." ... crap.. o well.

Alright kids, don't do milk, stay in drugs, and drink your school.
I have to head over to the Afam house to express to the Cultural Connections kids how diverse Yale is supposed to be. Best of luck to everyone in the next year. I want you all to drink and streak more often.

posted by Adrian   [6:44 PM]

Ok- this isn't a post really but it is an update.

For those who don't know, I will be living in Chicago (Evanston actually) starting September 3rd and through late December of this year. Where I'll be after that I don't know, but that's my life I guess. I will still technically be at U of Nebraska, but I'll be doing the Indipendent Study jig in Chicago. During time not working and not reading/writing/doing homework I'll be traveling as much as possible and playing music / selling cds. I'll probably stop by each and every college town on the west and east coasts, and will certainly be in Austin at least once in the fall. I'll try to give a few weeks notice to various taspers before I invade their campus.

Does anyone else have any major updates on their life? I hear a rumor that Olga and Eunice will be quading together? Cool stuff like that?

posted by john owens-ream   [4:15 PM]

Okay SLACKERS
stop hiding and come out...
besides i need some help... i want to make 'sleeting rain' from adj + n into adv + trans. v. - any suggestions?

posted by Bryan Lee   [9:15 AM]

"Above all I would like to thank [...]. I would also like to thank [...]. I am indebted to the following authors and books: [...] Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory, [........................]"

- from the Acknowledgements page of Ian McEwan, Enduring Love

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [8:36 AM]

labor quote. I thought it was funny. I dedicate it to Bryan for knowing at least the first hundred digits of the constant in question:


my sister's math class of high school freshmen: "What's e?"
teacher: "It stands for something that starts with E."
eager children: "Energy!"
teacher: "No, that's big E. This is little E."
*increasingly farfetched guesses*
teacher: "Here's a hint. It rhymes with 'boiler's constant'!"
*silence*
teacher: Euler!

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [9:09 AM]

might i ask... just out of curiousity
what is everyone's thing to do when they wanna get away from the world

mine is playing video games, rather unhealthy
i would swim, but i'm too weak now.

posted by Bryan Lee   [11:39 AM]

I meant to post this in December but God wouldn't let me take the picture. A friend took it for me.



Only in the Philippines.
The computer screen reads "I am always online."

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [3:53 AM]

**Aimee parks her bike at the bottom of the hill and tries to explain to her her confused friend why they are stopping. ' You know that texas shirt that I wear all the time? Well...' They walk up the hill, then climb the porch stairs to find a pimpled adolescent reading Herodotus. Aimee continues explaining TASP to her friend, walking past the involved reader to peer into the house (Kurt Vonnegut lived here! Jamie lived here!!). Aimee and friend walk back to the reader.
Aimee asks if he is a tasp participant, and when he confirms inquires into the subject of the the tasps this year. Something about history- unique and telluridian. Having heard her discuss the rules of tasp and the house, he asks if she is a resident. No, she replies, just interested.
Could they look around inside(and smell the seeping intellectualism)? She knows the answer and when he looks uncomfortable about saying no she relieves him by saying that it is alright if there are rules against it. No, he says, I really can't let you explore. You can peer around the first floor though. They do- they peer into rooms. Students sit on couches with bound readers in silence.
Pedalling away from the house, Aimee looks at her shirt and shoes and face as the character she has taken in the new tasper's memory, and feels herself reflected in people from her own memories: in one example, an adpi girl back with her own memories of a segment of life past that was once so inexplicably real.

I have indulged in telling a third person story about myself.
Sigh... The Cornell taspers moved out last Saturday. Two years, and I'm still sighing over anniversaries.

I have had it in mind to comment on god as well. Unfortunately the thoughts I've wanted to spit out have little contiguous relation to your beautiful expository, Matt. I will say this- I have been very interested in the god of the Hebrew Bible, and if I read you correctly I relate to your passion in his power - it is sometimes both terrifying and reassuring.
I like that the old god has very little to do with morality, so to speak. and that his rules put forth such practicality. This god rules men- those whom he likes, who obey him, are rewarded. Those who do not are punished. Rules for behavior are established to help those men who come next by showing the examples of those before them. Importantly, though, people come first. They follow such guidelines to increase their own chances of success, and the success of the posterity before them. ah! the vitality of it all- is so great. I don't think, that in the hebrew bible you would find martyrs in the modern sense- it simply wouldnt make sense to be more devoted to god than to life- instead, be devoted to god --because-- of wonderful life.
At any rate, what I've wanted to say, but am running out of time and space to articulate, is that I dont think that faith in god is the cure-all it often seems to be, despite the fact that so many believers attribute their strength and security to these beliefs. In praying to god, and believing in god as a personified collection of all positive happenings in the world, god represents the existence of not just as omnipotent creator, but also of all things good. In this sense, the un-existence of god carried the much larger, and more traumatizing implication of the un-existence of good.
Existentialism, depression, nihilism- these problems plague theists as well- e.g. Ecclesiastes, - A teacher explains that he has found much in life, especially attempts for innovation, to be 'vanity,' 'there is nothing new under the sun,' he says. In evaluating many goals and tasks that seem to give lives meaning he settles to say that none are truly righteous. What is left is simply to live- to enjoy life, till the land, reap the harvest, and love the children and family that you set in your place to take up the path. The Hebrew bible's rules then give avuncular advice- of those tried and true systems of a culture that works- they are reassuring, comforting- not hostile.
Here's the kicker: (let me get this out before i fall asleep on my keyboard) You need not believe in god. The advice of the Hebrew Bible does not really rest on any deity- it still explains systems and advice for secure life for anyone. What is more is that if as an atheist you believe that the god that they speak of does not and never did exist, it follows then that all of their advice was not given by a voice in the clouds, but by years of experience and cultural trial and error. It works because the people have, over time, gotten it all figured out.

Ok i have a sense that as it gets later I'm forgetting more and more of the necessary logical links between thoughts. fortunately my insomnia has left off.. Anyhow guys, peace out cub scouts.
aimee

posted by aimee   [1:08 AM]

is it okay to be a conservative (factota)?

posted by Matthew Schmitz   [5:00 PM]

Argh I'm getting really bad at this. I'm so sorry, I've been absurdly busy being unproductive that I just forgot. But, two days ago, it was Natashia's birthday. Natashia, where are you?

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY NATASHIA!


Also, John, you forgot to mention that you applied a week after the tasplication was due. :)

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [1:51 AM]

Jaime was about to be a senior and Monica had just finished her last year right? But we'd only be about to be juniors. I wonder if they're having trouble finding enough factotum?

Still, six weeks of learning and reading, room and board, 4k$, I'm betting the application process to become a factota is more rigorous even than the TASP application. But I've never been one to not apply for something just because I thought I wouldn't get in. Heck, there was this summer program thing I applied to once, like a free 6-week thing in texas or something, that was supposed to be ubercompetitive, but I snuck through that app process somehow.

And didn't Jaime go from being kicked out of his tasp for smoking pot, to being our fearless leader? So who knows, maybe I too am Factota-able.

that was a long-winded 'yes' Susan; I'm going to apply.

posted by john owens-ream   [11:48 PM]

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