Nireus

Dirge of Cerberus Overdubs

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 07:26:37 GMT

Watch and laugh:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/512-Dirge-of-Cerberus

KO-SU-KE

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:26:27 GMT

I'm not going to watch a cubs game until the WGN announcers can figure out how to pronounce Kosuke Fukudome's name. His first name is 3 syllables: Ko, Su, Ke. But the announcers keep calling him "Kos-ke." Unless this is a nickname I'm not aware of, the pronunciation is horribly wrong.

It's bad enough the great Fukudome has to play for a franchise that is doomed to never win a World Series, but do they really have to misprounce his name too? I mean when he started last season and they misprounced his name I was like, "Well, it's early on...I'm sure somebody will tell the announcers for next game." But now it's his SECOND SEASON and the pronounciation presists.

So WGN announcers, if your reading this, please start pronouncing his name correctly. I absolutely cannot bear to watch the games in their current state -- it's like nails on a chalkboard every time you mention his name.

Reverence

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:14:47 GMT

I remember when Skylar used to make LJ posts with beautiful pictures. Those were good days.

Ubercool "Mexican walking fish" Nearing Extinction

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:47:25 GMT

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/ubercool_mexica.php

That was Fun -- Let's Do it Again

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:51:27 GMT

Okay this time it's multiple choice. Don't worry - it's only two questions.

1) Today I went to Goodwill and bought...

a) Green shirt with a clover on it, size small
b) Pink polo shirt, size small
c) Yellow t-shirt with the text, "Mclean G. Sampson - the "G" is for gorgeous," size large

2) Today I went to Goodwill and bought...

a) A David Gray cd for 3 bucks.
b) The Da Vinci Code" hardcover for 6 bucks.
c) A purple "pimp hat" for 2 bucks.

Outsmarting a Florida Prison

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:57:49 GMT

WANTED
THIS BULLETIN AUTHORIZED IS FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

DMITRI SINILNIKOV
W/M DOB 12/08/53 5’9” 170# Bald/Blue SS# 546-53-0247 DOC# M34275
AKA: EUGENE ARTHUR COLE, DMITRI SINILIKOV, DEMETRI SINILNIKOV, MICHAEL NEGRON
****ESCAPE RISK – USE CAUTION****
On 08/27/08 between 0745HR and 0800HR DMITRI SINILNIKOV escaped from a Dept. of Corrections road gang working in north Sarasota County. His blue prison uniform was later located about 250’ away at the dead-end of North Osprey Ave. just north of 57St Street.
SINILNIKOV was serving a 15-year sentence for Fraud & Computer Crimes. He is described as very intelligent, and an accomplished computer hacker. He is a Russian national, and has espoused pro-communist beliefs. He is connected to the Miami, FL area, but also has ties to Texas and California.
An arrest warrant charging SINILNIKOV with escape is in FCIC/NCIC with full extradition.
Anyone coming into contact with SINILNIKOV should call 9-1-1 immediately for local law enforcement assistance. Do not try to apprehend SINILNIKOV or confront him.
ANYONE WITH INFORMATION ON SINILNIKOV’S WHEREABOUTS IS ASKED TO CONTACT FDLE SPECIAL AGENT DAVE SARNEY AT 941-359-5655 OR 800-226-9216.

THIS BULLETIN AUTHORIZED IS FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION

Usain Bolt Celebrates Early...Very Early

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:15:17 GMT

For some reason I feel obligated to post this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzSpPaCIG0g

That is all.

Ah Youtube

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:02:01 GMT

My youtube journey today began with me logging on to watch Rush on the Colbert Report and ended with me watching a one legged man play DDR. Gotta love Youtube.

Rush on Colbert Report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSVrWcLuu5o

If you take enough related videos from the Rush video you might eventually stumble upon the DDR video, but just in case:

One-legged DDR man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ok1Xc01oJ4&feature=related

Luminescent

Sun, 25 May 2008 04:59:51 GMT

I just played my first Lumines game in months. Since it had been so long since I last played I wasn’t expecting much.

Well, I had a great challenge mode game that lasted 1 hour, 20 minutes, 40-some seconds. I scored an astonishing 378,815 points and earned 13 new skins! My best previous score was 114,654. Oh yeah!

Smash Bros Brawl Review

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:54:57 GMT

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/4845-Zero-Punctuation-Super-Smash-Bros-Brawl

Think Dif!

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:53:33 GMT

For all you gamers and movie fans out there, my friend here on campus co-runs a pretty cool game and movie review site. It's not as "corporate" as sites like Gamespot, which is good because Gamespot seems to have problems with people paying them to give good reviews. However, at the same time, my friend and his crew don't have the resources to review each and every game and movie out there, so you might want a review for something that's not on the site (yet).

Anyway, if you have a minute check it out. The site is www.thinkdif.com. Also, if you really want to make my friend happy, you'll join the forums and join in on the discussion!

Have you Watched Your Video Today?

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:10:40 GMT

Man I hope this is real.

http://gprime.net/video.php/savealotofmoneyonbatteries

An Engineer, a Mathematician, and a Physicist Fight Fire

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:02:27 GMT

Okay, I had to post this one since Brett just graduated with a physics degree, and Blake and I will soon be graduating with degrees in engineering and mathematics respectfully. Unfortunately, the story has no musician...sorry Rich.

from http://www.sonoma.edu/Math/faculty/falbo/jokes.html

A physicist and engineer and a mathematician were sleeping in a hotel room when a fire broke out in one corner of the room. Only the engineer woke up he saw the fire, grabbed a bucket of water and threw it on the fire and the fire went out, then he filled up the bucket again and threw that bucketfull on the ashes as a safety factor, and he went back to sleep. A little later, another fire broke out in a different corner of the room and only the physicist woke up. He went over measured the intensity of the fire, saw what material was burning and went over and carefully measured out exactly 2/3 of a bucket of water and poured it on, putting out the fire perfectly; the physicist went back to sleep. A little later another fire broke out in a different corner of the room. Only the mathematician woke up. He went over looked at the fire, he saw that there was a bucket and he noticed that it had no holes in it; he turned on the faucet and saw that there was water available. He, thus, concluded that there was a solution to the fire problem and he went back to sleep.

Portal is Awesome

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:43:44 GMT

Okay, I just played one of the most awesome games I've played in a looong time. The game concept is just so original. I mean in an age where it's all about sequels and better graphics, it's just so great to come across an original creation.

The game, called Portal, runs off the half-life source engine, so the physics engine just allows the game to execute so well. It's cool because the portals preserve momentum, so you can pretty crazy stuff. The storyline and script is great, but it's also fun to just mess around on the maps (like make wicked infinite loops).

Anyway, if you have an xbox 360 or a somewhat beefy PC, I would strongly recommend getting Portal. It's only $20 for the most original puzzle game of the decade. If nothing else, check out this trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeUjVkJ7seY

Bible Games Review

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:45:52 GMT

This is great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkNvQYiM6bw

No Wonder They're Better at Math Overseas

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:17:46 GMT

I'm a senior undergraduate math major and I'm currently studying things such as density of the reals in our real analysis class. Apparently, if you live in Japan, you study things like this in high school. Check out what I found on a math forum today:

---

In reply to "Topological Groups", posted by HISAO SUZUKI on May 18, 2003:
I am a Japanese High School mathematics teacher.
I would greatly appreciate an explanation of the following problem:
Why is {m+nr} , where m and n are integers and r is irrational,
always dense in real numbers?

Thank you for considering my query. I look forward to reading your response.

Sincerely,
Hisao Suzuki.

---

This is amazing to me for a number of reasons:

1) Mr. Suzuki lives in Japan, yet seems to be very comfortable with the English language (which I think is par for the course in Japan).

2) Mr. Suzuki is a high school math teacher, yet he is actually interested and curious about his subject, in stark contrast to the apathetic high teachers we have here in the U.S.

3) They study density of the reals in high school!? Wtf!? I don't think I knew the difference between a real number and an irrational number in high school, let alone knowledge about density of a set.

Ridiculous.

I love Futurama

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:33:29 GMT

Mayor C. Randall Poopenmayer: Will you save our city?
Professor Ogden Wernstrom: I will, but it'll cost you.
Mayor C. Randall Poopenmayer: All right, how much?
Professor Ogden Wernstrom: First, I want tenure.
Mayor C. Randall Poopenmayer: Done.
Professor Ogden Wernstrom: Next, I want a research grant.
Mayor C. Randall Poopenmayer: Done.
Professor Ogden Wernstrom: Also, access to a lab, and five graduate students, at least three of them Chinese.
Mayor C. Randall Poopenmayer: All right, done. Now, what's your plan?
Professor Ogden Wernstrom: What plan? I'm set for life. Au revoir, suckers!
Leela: You can't just let him get away with this. Stop him!
Mayor C. Randall Poopenmayer: I wish I could, but he has tenure.

Let the Record Reflect

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:25:26 GMT

So we had this number theory take-home test due last week. The test consisted of five problems, and I blazed right through the first four...some of them I figured out instantly, but all four took me no more than 2 hours.

Then there was problem 5. The others had been easy, but this one I just couldn't prove. The way the problem was written on the test was a bit confusing (and perhaps misleading), but here is an easier-to-understand version:

Let p be a prime of the form p = 8k + 3. Prove that for all such p, the equation x^2 + (2k + 1) = 0 (mod p) does NOT have a solution.

Anyway, all problems seem easy after you solve them, but this one gave me nightmares. I could prove the case that 2k+1 happened to be a prime (using Legendre symbols), but I had no clue how to proceed on the other cases. My attempts lead me to dark caverns where it wasn't so clear where to proceed.

Anyway, days later and after a lot of frustration, I found out that my proof for the prime case actually worked for all cases, I just didn't realize it. I thought 2k + 1 had to be prime to proceed in the way I did, but it turns out it didn't (I wasn't making full use of Jacobi symbol properties). So it took some time but I finally put that last problem to rest. I just got my test back and I got a 98/100.

So things continue to go well for me in number theory. Actually the whole semester has gone pretty well for me, at least as far as academics is concerned. There's only a few more weeks left in the semester, so now I just have to finish strong.

I've been giving some lately as to whether or not I'll actually enjoy teaching. Part of me thinks I will, but another part of me is unsure. I won't actually get the experience of teaching a class for another year or two, so for the time being I'm just hoping that I will like teaching.

For now the best benchmark for me is tutoring, which I think is fun most of the time. It's rewarding that I'm passing on knowledge to people, but it's also fun because people come to tutoring for help on all kinds of problems. Yesterday I happened to be tutoring two girls at the same time -- one girl I was teaching how to add fractions, and the other girl I was doing integration by parts to help solve a continuous probability problem. How awesomely weird is that?

The thing I think about most academically, however, is whether to go for a PhD or just a masters. I'm going to apply to some PhD programs over T-break, and I'm thinking if I can bare it, I should probably go for the PhD. It seems like a PhD would help assure a better teaching position for me. I mean, if I knew I could get hired at a good community college like ICC I would probably just go for the masters, but there are certainly some community colleges that I wouldn't want to teach at. I'm all for teaching, but I want to be as much removed from a high school environment as I can.

I'm on a podcast!!

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 06:11:46 GMT

Ridiculous day, here are the high points.

***Found out Barack Obama is running for President. You can cast my ballet now: Barack Obama, 2008.

***Won the team table tennis intramurals with Tony Ciasto. I showed up to play last Thursday with a high fever, nausea, sore throat, cough, headache, and an earache. I knew it would be easy and I’d be back in bed soon. We played 2 teams of frat boys, and I was back in bed within 30 minutes (two of the games were skunks, 11-0) I actually vomited later that night, an activity I think I’ve done no more than 5 times in my life.

It was worth it though, because tonight I was back in fighting shape and the competition was significantly better (we had to play the champions of all the earlier nights). We won both our matches, and are now team intramural champs!

Here’s a pod cast that the newspaper here did after the final match:
http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper309/audio/podcasts/x6aeh0dh.mp3

***Might sign up to study abroad in Spain over the summer. The trip is 6 weeks long and worth 6 credit hours, including credit for the next Spanish class in the sequence (which I wouldn’t have to take my senior year then). Supposedly it’s a beautiful location on the coast of Spain. Spending the summer next to the ocean while getting credits sounds so nice.

***Got two tests back today. Both were taken last week when I was in my terrible sick state described above. I got 72/75 on my nonwestern music test, and it looks like a 112/113 on the Spanish test. I was beating myself up over my mistakes, but I guess both tests were the high for the class.

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 05:37:16 GMT

It's 11:33PM, I can't figure out an Abstract proof (nor can my buddy Tim who is smarter than me), and I haven't even started my Diff EQ. If this were poker I'd be all-in as a significant underdog for my tournament life. I just hope I survive and make it to the next round.

Reversal of Fortune

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:03:41 GMT

So last night, in an attempt to get my bed not to squeak, I sprayed the springs with WD40. The squeaks stopped, but now my bed is hard as a rock and I woke up with back pain. What now?

I might have found my role in life

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 06:57:50 GMT

Tonight I tutored three girls and a guy for three straight hours in college algebra...and I liked it! It was really fun for some reason, the time flew by. I'm still on the teaching rush.

Just When You Least Expect It...

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 23:37:01 GMT

I don't know if there's such a thing as a miracle, but today somebody brought over a Wii to our suite and said he'll most likely leave it here. Not only that, but I checked the downloaded games hoping for GoldenAxe, silently knowing there's almost no chance. Well, none other than Goldenaxe was there. I'm pumped.

Better do the homework now.

Come to Think About it....

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 07:03:44 GMT

I wonder how old the Asian kids in my LJ picture are now...

I wonder if they'll ever find out I use them as an LJ pic...

My Youtube Experience

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 20:40:32 GMT

Check, check, check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I-0GjoidgI