Circle

April 30, 2010 | RC Lounge

Lots of death happened today. When I first came to the RC after this death (about 11:30) people were working out the cycle. Then they changed it.

This cycle is meant to be wrong. And it is wrong. And I believe I know how to fix it.

Seniors

April 30, 2010 Finger Fountain

This is a pretty blurry picture, but when I went back to the bio building tonight, I heard so much cheering and excitement. I was biking in the opposite direction of a mob of seniors as well...The seniors are crazy! This is a part of the traditional senior fountain run which involves running to every fountain on campus and jumping in (we have quite a few fountains). It's pretty amusing.

Slappers

April 29, 2010 | Rainier North of Grant, Washington

(Rainier North of Grant is the location: Rainier Vista North of Grant Lane. Washington means UW. I'd fully address it as Washington, Washington, USA. Seattle doesn't have to be mentioned.)

I don't know what was up with the Taiwanese (Korean?) food fair today. There were tents on the HUB lawn. If Kevin were there, it would have made more sense. Anyway, I left the HUB and saw these people, and followed them.

They walked through the HUB lawn, past Mary Gates, up to Red Square. Then they got to make a speech to the president. The black balloons symbolize "a cloud hanging over [them]". Things are getting bad for the TAs here, and they are striking on Monday, with a student strike to support them.

Fleece

April 28, 2010 My Wrigley Jacket

I feel like I'm wearing a blanket. It's fun hugging myself in fleece. And it's in such a pretty color! Best. Idea. Ever.

Unixkcd

April 28, 2010 | In the Upper Husky Den (HUB)

My computer is running Unixkcd. It's the main competitor of Google's ChromeOS. It's still early in development, though, and doesn't do very much.

;)

Building

April 27, 2010 Cheese grater building

I've passed by this building before, but I didn't know until yesterday that people call it the "cheese grater". Hahahahahahahahahahahahahah. It really is reminiscent of a cheese grater. Anyway, this is where my second lab group is. (I am a part of two lab groups for now. I feel like such a bad ass.) I am currently imagining huge chucks of cheese shredding through the building a la "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" style.

Rules

April 27, 2010 | RC Lounge

These are assassins rules, posted yesterday morning by me in the RC lounge. Last time we had 4 pages of rules, and another page was added later as an amendment. This time we have 7 pages. I also sacrificed my campus map to clarify campus boundaries, it's on the far right.

The game is progressing slowly. We had one kill on April 23rd, on the second morning of the game, and two more so far today. It's fun.

Gel

April 26, 2010 Running gels

So, this is kind of cheating because I had to do this gel for my lab work. I ran two gels today. They were the same except I had to add more SYBR gold to make this one fluoresce better. Basically, today I was checking to see which genes exist in the oyster genome. Some bands are pretty faint, and one gene is probably completely absent. Now, I have plenty of genes to choose from for my project. Exciting.

Leaffall

April 26, 2010 | Outside RC Lounge

About 50 minutes ago, wind picked up, and leaves started falling. Falling hard. It was an interesting phenomenon. I took a lot of pictures.

Ah. Today was long, my partner is freaking out about the project (I have MCM experience so I'm not really freaking out.) Anyway, leaffall is much more fun than rain, though not as fun as snow.

Cake

April 25, 2010 Ice Cream Cake

I went to the TCDance Viewing Party (of our annual showcase). It was exciting because there was food, and we watched the whole performance together. Our party was held with Wushu Nation (martial arts group) because they performed a little in our showcase. One of our girls made this ice cream cake which has a brownie bottom and coffee ice cream towards the bottom. It looks very nice, and it was pretty good, too.

Tall

April 25, 2010 | North IMA Fields

See? This is the kind of people that we play against. Tall people. So it was all fair that when a team forfeited, we got the win.

We practiced instead. Ran a few drills and practiced with a few people who showed up. Tall people. Bleh.

Physics is evil.

Lyser

April 24, 2010 In progress

As you know, I was in lab all day today (8 hours...ahhh). This is the best I can do for today. This machine, I believe it is a TissueLyser, shakes left and right. 2 min, 20 Hz: that was my setting. I put little steel beads (3 to 5 mm) in my hemolymph samples to which I add a manufactured version of phenol. It sounds pretty cool when it's shaking. It's the sound of science and awesomeness. I also like centrifuges, especially the ones that cool down to lower temperatures.

Party

April 24, 2010 | Prof. Morrow's backyard

Today was my math professor's party for us MCMers (+ Will). Prof. Pevtsova and Prof. Dumitriu (Putnam organizers) also came. So did we, students, and our parents.

I'm tired, and want to go to sleep. Lots happened today, though. I'd talk about it, sometime.

Face

April 23, 2010 Angry face

I must be going crazy. It looks like there is an angry face in the clouds. See, there are two round eyes. And a lightly outlined mouth. The way the sun was hitting the water through the clouds was pretty, and I had to take a picture. I should have gotten closer. Now, I just have angry clouds.

Disk

April 23, 2010

One month until my birthday, and this is what the Budapest DVDs will looks like. We have a box of about 20 of these. I'm optimistic about there not being enough interest for me to burn more than that.

There would be a title written in. Otherwise, this DVD has everything on it - build 9. Just a few bugs that I've fixed today. Unless I find anymore, the current build - build 11 - will be distributed. And you'll get a copy. It has very nice music on it.

Krill?

April 22, 2010 Fresh fish food

This is from that one very beautiful sunny day, Monday. All those fish were feeding on these krill. I have some cool videos. They need editing and sound. My camera doesn't record sound. :( The good thing about the clouds, though, is that they make the sunset so much more impressive.

Reception

April 21, 2010 | UW Club

I might have told you about yesterday's math reception. It's an exciting event that I get to experience by invitation for taking the Putnam, participating in the modeling competition, etc. The reception is for new students to meet current students and talk to them about mathematics at UW. For me it means free food, as well as a chance to socialize with other students in the math program, some of whom I don't see on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, I only took two pictures, and they were both out of focus.

Frozen

April 21, 2010 Mussels on the rocks

I foil all the mussels when I come back from the field. I think I've burned myself on dry ice. By the time this is posted, I will be done with sampling! My sleep schedule is super messed up, and I am completely ready to crash. It has been fun. It has been nice and sunny. It has been drizzly. It has been extremely windy (gusts, probably up to 50mph or higher).

Chips

April 21, 2010 | CSE Hardware Lab

Here's last week's project. It uses more chips and more wires. It's also more colorful.

Actually, my TA didn't like it because I simplified the circuit. My TA was expecting more wires. He he.

Sampling

April 20, 2010 Towards the end of the first 24 hours

Things were going quite well. The day time was more clear and warm than I had expected. Clouds rolled in. My paper got sprinkled on. Things got a little messy in the afternoon. Then, by 7PM, it was nice-ish again except the winds were picking up. I went out for my 10PM sample. It is cold and windy! My things keep wanting to fly away! :(

Reflector

April 20, 2010

The clear plastic cover on this book reflected the light off my table lamp (which is pratcically a point source), creating the DNA strand pattern on my ceiling. This book is from the Intensive Hungarian 3-week program in Hungary last August.

Yeah. I'll have a better picture tomorrow. I made another circuit, and it's colorful.

Shallows

April 19, 2010 Fish in shallow water

I went down by the water today. It was pretty warm and sunny today. The fish were going crazy. They were feeding on krill or something. I was told these fish over here were possible mackerel. Well, I don't know my fish. They looked blue-ish, I watched them feed and stood in that low shore-like area with the smooth rock formation. It was really cool. A lot would touch the surface and then swim away. Moments later, they would come back. The reflection light wasn't good from the shore, so I took this picture from the helipad area.

DNA

April 19, 2010

This is the ceiling in my room. And that looks like a DNA strand. It's missing a polymerase.

Today was sunny and warm. It will rain tonight and tomorrow. And you're sampling right now? Yeah?

Skype

April 18, 2010 Skyping together

You may have noticed me taking this picture...Anyway, we were skyping, and I was doing lab work. By lab work, I mean labeling. My big sampling event was pushed up a week, creating chaos for myself. The moving wasn't my idea. I probably won't be able to talk much for the next three nights. I only have 1.5 hours of free time between each interval, which means I will be power napping, eating, or labeling. I feel like a grad student.

Nature

April 18, 2010 | Washington Park Arboretum

This is post #500. Two hundred and fifty days ago we took a good bye picture at Magnuson Park. That picture of us started this blog. That evening we said good bye, and next morning I flew away to the land of the Magyar.

Two hundred and fifty days passed, and the world to us is much different. We know ourselves better, know what to expect of ourselves and what we want. Thanks to a certain volcano in Iceland, traveling to Europe is no longer possible, though hopefully only temporarily. But it is my hope and intention that we continue to exist for each other, and while we do, this blog will keep updating with the usual delays due to our being very busy, or our slackishness.

Come back to Seattle soon! There are still many things for us to do here. We can, for example, go rowing or kayaking through these canals in the Arboretum. It will be warm in the summer. Warm and as green as ever.

Visitors

April 17, 2010 Visitors snorkeling and (preparing to go) kayaking

So, I don't know if I already told you these, but the population at this end of the island has quadrupled or so since two weeks. Plus, we've been getting a lot of day and weekend visitors. I miss having fewer people. I miss the eggs, omelettes and overeasy. Plus, the other students go through honey so quickly.

Sculptures

April 17, 2010

My sister makes these sculptures. They're made out of cheese, and I've no idea how she does it. Pretty cool, I think.

Guide

April 17, 2010 My flower field guide

I bought this from Airport in the Sky. As I described it yesterday, it is organized by color. And there are many, many flowers in there, invasive and native. The one in my picture yesterday was "bird vetch". I think my favorite flower on Catalina is the light purple one, hog onion or something. Oh, but shooting stars are pretty, too. And lupine! They're all pretty. Hehe.

Baking

April 16, 2010 | RC Kitchen

More cooking happened today. Lots of cookies. Only the left are lemon cookies, to be eaten with tea. On the right are green cookies... with tea. In the hour or so between physics and ultimate practice I watched these cookies be made and engaged in a conversation about the development of community gardens in low-income areas. In everyone's minds was a single ultimate goal that is shared by many but rarely discussed in public.

This is why I like hanging out with EEPers. The rigor with which they approached a problem was greater than anything I've seen elsewhere, the solution was motivated by honesty rather than pragmatism, and the agreement allowed for a thorough discussion. And then there were the cookies, the tasty cookies made by a couple EEPers and shared with everyone in the RC.

Spring

April 15, 2010 New flowers

We have new blooms on the island. There are new yellow flowers (2 different types) and these purple ones which have been becoming purple-r. They are pretty, and I found them in my field guide, but I already forget what they are called. I'm going to have to look them up again. I don't think I've shown you my field guide. It's like the best $10 I've ever spent. Pretty flower pictures. :) And organized by color. I think my dad will like it.

Lectures

April 15, 2010 | Savery 206

I took a few pictures of Professor Trefethen today. Today, yesterday, and on Tuesday he talked to us math people for an hour. He's a professor at Oxford, and was invited to lecture at UW.

These lectures are special. The last two speakers were Fields Medalists (kind of like the Noble prize, but for mathematics, awarded to a few people every four years).

Today, though, we got kicked out a few minutes early by a large class coming in. That other lecturer came in and exclaimed "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to be so rude.", to which the visiting British mathematician said "Oh, they're not sorry."

Contraption

April 14, 2010 Bivalve purses

Here are my wonderful devices. They hang near the lamppost down by the dock. One is always submerged, and this one is much higher. The one currently out of the water because of low tide (~3:50) should be submerged for about half of the day. All my pets are still alive, I believe. Yay. And it's fun to see the tides emerge and submerge them.

Hook

April 14, 2010

I finally hung my headphones on the wall. Before they were either taking up space on the table, or lying on the ground. Now they're easily accessible and don't take up table space. There's slight damage to the wall being done, though.

Today was a long day. And it isn't over. I don't know how much I will be able to sleep tonight.

Green

April 13, 2010 Toffee Almond Biscotti

I had biscotti with my coffee this morning. Delicious. The coffee wasn't so delicious though. I accidentally missed breakfast. Biscotti is fun to make! But in my experiences, for some reason, the parchment paper starts burning. I like dipping them in coffee, which I believe is their purpose.

Cookies

April 13, 2010 | RC Lounge

I don't think I ever have documented food inside the RC. I was watching a hilarious game of spades when Sarah Borsic brought a whole plate of these. The cookies were very good.

We should bake again. Yeah?

Aplasia

April 12, 2010 Baby sea hare

I took this picture because a baby sea hare was crawling under the surface of the water, and I found it to be very amusing. Unfortunately, my camera kept auto-focusing on something else which was irritation.

Verses

April 12, 2010 | My wall

This has been hanging on my wall since the cast party. I guess I liked the verses and put them up.

Except they're wrong. Factually.

You might also notice that I made a mistake with the cropping.I cropped to the same margin on the bottom as on the top and left, but then realized that I need to credit the author. Oh well...

Baigan

April 12, 2010 Baighan Bharta, Eggplant Curry!

This is my favorite thing ever. Mmmmm. Maybe not my favorite thing to eat in the world, but it's very tasty. One of my accomplishments for this weekend. I failed to get an oil change or get my passport renewed. But at least I got Indian food and milk tea. And I went to Target.

Catkins

April 11, 2010

I noticed the twig this afternoon. These are flowers from a hybrid of the Goat Willow (Salix caprea). In Russia these flowers are a symbol of Spring.

Promenade

April 10, 2010 The dinosaur hedges at Third Street Promenade

So, today I went to Santa Monica with some friends. We just went for a little shopping. For this, I gave up the opportunity to see famous celebrities: T-Pain performing at USC and the frickin' cast of GLEE at the Grove. Good thing I'm not too celebrity-obsessed. It would have been cool to have taken pictures of them, but, you know, they're just people who entertain you. (One time, I met the musicians of my favorite band of all time and I was so frickin' ecstatic. But that's different because I think it is safe to say that above television and movies, I love metal and music.) I did a great many of things today. It would have been better if I had talked to you.

Survivors

April 9, 2010 | Outside Hansee Dorm (North of Denny Field)

Yesterday was the final mission for UW Humans vs. Zombies Tag. Surviving humans has to collect three objectives to win, one of which was on Denny Field.

Lots of zombies guarded the objective. And humans? Here is a group of survivors that operated off cellular contact with the main group. They waited outside Denny Field, and then moved to Parrington Lawn, where they were pushed out by a group of zombies, surrounded, and eventually annihilated.

Six humans. About 50 zombies. Needless to say, humans got owned.

Jen

April 9, 2010 Jen and her ukulele

Jen has a really pretty, awesome ukulele. It's fun to watch her play. I kind of want one, too. Coincidentally, Tiffany wanted to buy a ukulele after her LSAT. I wonder if she has one by now...in Spain. Haha. So, next year, perhaps my house will be 3/4 full of ukulele players. Yay, ukulele! It's like a guitar, but with fewer strings! And a more accessible finger board. Kind of makes me miss my viola.

Dylan

April 10, 2010 | Middle of the Quad

Lots of fun happened today. I went for lunch with people and we got food to share (which is what really counts). Then I went to class and then to frisbee practice, and after the frisbee practice I followed humans and zombies on their final mission. Humans got owned. Then, dinner and four hours of Karaoke with Kevin. Awesomeness.

Anyway, this is Dylan. He sometimes gives free hugs in the quad. In fact, there is a video of him in the Seattle Times. According to Dylan, "the only thing better than a hug is a free hug."

Bivalves

April 8, 2010 Clean tanks

I spent 3 hours cleaning my tanks and scrubbing my oysters down down down (they were so brown and dirty to start!). My tanks look so beautiful. I could cry. But in a few days, I'll be setting them off a pole in a plastic cage to live in the ocean. They will be very dirty again by the end of my project. :/

Camera

April 8, 2010 | RC lounge

A UW student came to the RC today. He will be filming us throughout the quarter for a new RC promotional video, and maybe several other projects.

And he's much more fun than the ABC people when they came last year. He even played spades with us.

Fishing

April 7, 2010 Little fishie in DJ's hands

So, today I collected my oyster samples from under the dock where they have plastic cages with oysters. The cages have been left for quite a long time, so a lot of things grow in and around. When we brought some cages up, we found little fish flopping around. I get weirded out touching live animals that are squishy, but I had to return the animals back to the ocean (lots of mini crabs). I did eventually touch a little fishie myself to return to the sea. Squishy.

Circuit

April 7, 2010 | In the hardware lab (CSE 003)

I made my first digital circuit in lab today! This one controls three switches and three LEDs. Being able to play with chips and wires is kind of fun.

Some people switch to hardware engineering after taking this sequence. I hope I won't be tempted too much. Hardware engineering would mean having to take several more courses.

Mussels

April 6, 2010 My pets

So, these are the mussels I'll be using for my experiment. I'll also be using oysters. Unfortunately for the mussels, they will be sacrificed (whereas for the oysters I'm taking their blood equivalent). Oh crap. In the name of science, don't tell PETA!

Human

April 6, 2010 | Outside the Physics-Astronomy Complex

Today was Day II of Humans vs. Zombies. The game ends on Friday. Yesterday the unmarked OZs (original zombies) tagged a lot of people, and so today there are a lot of zombies. This means that tomorrow there will be a lot of hungry zombies, and on Thursday there will be a lot of started zombies.

The humans have to watch out, though. This one was escaping two from the RC. I was with them trying to get good action shots new fast lens. So somebody remarked that I'm an "undead chaser", similar to "ambulance chasers".

Joyce

March 5, 2010 Baked goods from Joyce

Joyce loves me. She gave me peanut butter blossoms, chocolate chip cookies, and blueberry muffins. :) I don't think I need to go to breakfast for a few days. Her food is yummy.