With a little lot of help from yesterday’s WCS Live Report thread, I’ve finally hit 30,000 posts! It’s been over two years since my 20K milestone blog, which means I’m slowing down in my old age of 27. + Show Spoiler +
I’ve unfortunately been far too busy over the past two years with real life stuff. I’ve mostly stopped playing StarCraft, although I started playing Heroes of the Storm (my first MOBA) about 2 months ago and I really, really like it. Now instead of blaming hackers and lag in 1v1 games, I can blame my 4 shitty allies for the losses that are really my fault (Speaking of which, if anyone ever wants to play Heroes with me, please let me know!)
I’ve made some changes in my life. For the past few years, I had been juggling a full-time PhD in math education, teaching math at the university level as an adjunct professor, teaching at public tutoring centers, and private tutoring, all at the same time. But as I had been going through my PhD (finishing all my coursework and starting on my dissertation research), I started to realize just how much I favored teaching students over merely writing about them. Furthermore, I found that most tenured-track professorships require a huge emphasis on research, rather than teaching (because writing all those grants is what brings in money to the university), and that wasn’t my primary desire. So while I’m still teaching college part-time (in the evenings), I recently got a job as a high school math teacher at a nearby private school, starting in the fall. It’s pretty much the ideal job for me (except no tenure, which is a pretty big deal). And I decided to withdraw from the PhD program (for now anyways… who knows what the future will bring), as I would have at least 3+ more years of research and writing ahead of me, and I didn't want to be throwing time and money away if I wasn't really going to be using the degree.
I severely underestimated the relief I would feel from leaving my doctoral program. I consistently felt overwhelmed, especially with everything else on my schedule, and now I have room to breathe. I now actually have nearly an entire month off this summer as a result (which I’ve never had before… ever), which I’ve been putting to good use. Playing tennis, hitting the gym, taking out the old N64, watching livestreams and speedruns and gaming tournaments online....
And visiting wedding venues Last summer, I got engaged to my fiancée, and she just graduated vet school at UPenn. Some of my male friends aren’t/ weren’t interested in planning their own weddings (“I just let her plan everything, whatever… she wants to do it”), but I’m really enjoying the process. Perhaps it’s because we’ve been dating for 9 years- since high school- and have been in a long-distance relationship for pretty much the entire time, but I’m more excited than ever to plan my future with Andrea! Pro-tip: Weddings cost money. Especially in New Jersey.
I think the only other big event that’s gone on in my personal life recently was the fact that we (my mother, my two brothers, and I) rescued a new puppy from a shelter Now we have two wonderful dogs, an 8 year old shiba inu named Sadie and a 9 month old lab/ hound/ beagle mix named Misty <3
What? Were you expecting absolutely adorable pictures of puppies or something? + Show Spoiler +
Okay fine
I’m really, really happy with the big decisions I’ve been making, and where I am right now in life + Show Spoiler +
At the risk of getting slightly political, I’m extremely proud of my country for finally recognizing and legalizing gay marriage. + Show Spoiler +
And I’m proud of TL for supporting gay human rights as well <3
My soon-to-be brother-in-law is in a gay relationship, and they’re one of the cutest couples I know. And even more importantly, he’s just been a great guy overall and has been a huge support structure for my fiancée over the years, ever since they were little… and I couldn’t dream of thinking he was any less worthy of the happiness and benefits that I’ll have, simply because he may want to marry a guy and not a girl.
Oh yeah, and I met this random guy: I have such a large hadron for this man I get to now cross “Talk to Neil deGrasse Tyson” off my bucket list He’s one of three bucket list idols/ celebrities that I’ve had the opportunity to meet (I’ve also met Boxer and Christopher Titus).
Anyways, on to the traditional shout-outs! Thank you to: neoghaleon55 and BLinD-RawR for always remembering my birthday! Barrin and Djzapz for the 5/5 they’ll give me in this blog #wontletyoudown Plansix for being one half of Team Plasma 6 + Show Spoiler +
Jealous and SlowBullets for being awesome N64 partners! micronesia and any other educators (especially in the STEM fields) for sharing your wisdom. Shellshock, dAPhREAk, 3FFA, Yorkie, BisuDagger, Darkhorse, brian, docvoc, TheEmulator, MountainDewJunkie, The_Templar, Lorning, PhoenixVoid, lichter, and everyone else who I think is really cool/ makes TL an incredibly interesting community/ contributes to LRs/ leaves awesome blog comments/ PMs (Sorry if I forgot to mention you!) xDaunt and the rest of the Heroes contributors for answering all my stupid questions! The moderators for never banning me, while simultaneously conditioning me to fear the worst every time I get a PM. Anyone posting in the US Politics Megathread, because I don’t know shit about my own country’s politics and it’s always useful to get educated via rational discourse + Show Spoiler +
or the silly arguments that occasionally go on in there
On a related note to the educational value of some threads like the US Politics one, I actually host debate dinners in New Jersey (usually around Rutgers in New Brunswick/ Piscataway) once every 2 months or so, where all my friends meet up at someone’s house or an Applebee’s or wherever, and we eat and drink and just have informal-yet-respectful debates and discussions about anything and everything, including politics, ethics, religion, philosophy, science, mathematics, literature, education, guns, sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, wars, healthcare, widgets, etc. It’s a nice little meeting of the minds, where everyone is respectful of one another and it’s a cool opportunity to even sit back and listen to others, if you’re more of the strong, silent type ^^ If anyone is ever interested in attending these (they’re always going to be in NJ), shoot me a PM! The more, the merrier The next one is Saturday, July 11th!
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and thank you for taking the time to read through my blog(s)! Feel free to leave a comment, ask a question, etc.
As someone who seems to really enjoy teaching math, I was surprised you were going for the phd in math ed. If you continue to enjoy teaching math after several years, I suspect you won't try to become an administrator :p
I'm glad I was able to offer you some wisdom, and you can always feel free to bounce ideas off of me in the future.
On June 27 2015 23:27 Cricketer12 wrote: Grats on the milestone, and the pretty awesome picture of you and NDGT
Thanks! He was giving a lecture in Philly that I bought tickets for, half a year in advance Getting to meet him was sooo worth it *-* He's such a nice guy!
On June 27 2015 23:34 BisuDagger wrote: Dude, we are the same age! And sick photo. Nice to hear about your life. Grats on 30k!
Thanks, and enjoy being 27! You won't be another perfect cube until you turn 64 x.x
On June 27 2015 23:34 Djzapz wrote: 5 stars because of peer pressure, you earned them. First time I've had a shoutout on TL afaik!
Congrats on 30k, marriage (you done well), job, meeting NDT and perhaps large hardon colliders on the side.
I'll have to slow down my posting because I don't have shit for my 10K milestone.
I think I've had one or two shoutouts but I can never keep track of others' blogs lol. And yeah, I'm a lucky guy ^^
On June 27 2015 23:42 micronesia wrote: As someone who seems to really enjoy teaching math, I was surprised you were going for the phd in math ed. If you continue to enjoy teaching math after several years, I suspect you won't try to become an administrator :p
I'm glad I was able to offer you some wisdom, and you can always feel free to bounce ideas off of me in the future.
Thanks! And yeah, I'm not interested in administrating or solely doing research; I want to be teaching, first and foremost The PhD would have helped with my qualification if I wanted to be taken seriously for a full-time professorship, but even if I got a tenured track university job, I would have had to focus a lot more on research than I wanted x.x There are a few non-tenured track full time jobs at the university level, but colleges are preferring to hire a few part-time adjuncts instead of full-time faculty, so that they don't need to pay as much money/ offer as many benefits. Being a high school teacher is more secure in those ways, as you know
On June 28 2015 00:03 OtherWorld wrote: Grats (: And these dogs are cute <3
And really obedient too
On June 28 2015 00:11 The_Templar wrote: Congrats!
Thanks!
On June 28 2015 00:53 y0su wrote: I must have missed your 20k blog. Congrats!
wedding tip: Getting married on a weekday can save you a TON!
Haha definitely, but we're going to have nearly 200 people (I'm Italian and she's Filipina, so we have big families), and a lot of people need to fly in/ drive in to NJ, and we can't expect everyone to take a lot of time off x.x We also found that afternoon weddings are about half the price of evening weddings (even on weekends), which is fantastic
On June 28 2015 00:53 y0su wrote: I must have missed your 20k blog. Congrats!
wedding tip: Getting married on a weekday can save you a TON!
Haha definitely, but we're going to have nearly 200 people (I'm Italian and she's Filipina, so we have big families), and a lot of people need to fly in/ drive in to NJ, and we can't expect everyone to take a lot of time off x.x We also found that afternoon weddings are about half the price of evening weddings (even on weekends), which is fantastic
Yeah, you can't get that many people to take vacation on a Tuesday morning
On June 28 2015 00:03 OtherWorld wrote: Grats (: And these dogs are cute <3
And really obedient too
On June 28 2015 00:11 The_Templar wrote: Congrats!
Thanks!
On June 28 2015 00:53 y0su wrote: I must have missed your 20k blog. Congrats!
wedding tip: Getting married on a weekday can save you a TON!
Haha definitely, but we're going to have nearly 200 people (I'm Italian and she's Filipina, so we have big families), and a lot of people need to fly in/ drive in to NJ, and we can't expect everyone to take a lot of time off x.x We also found that afternoon weddings are about half the price of evening weddings (even on weekends), which is fantastic
Yeah, you can't get that many people to take vacation on a Tuesday morning
Yeah lol and if they're flying in from the Philippines, they might as well take a few days off
Haha sure, I'll put together a quick top list of the best April Fool's pranks I've either given or received, and I'll post it as a comment here (I don't have any pictures unfortunately). Check back within 48 hours and it'll be posted here!
Okay FO-nTTaX, these are the top six April Fool’s jokes I’ve ever experienced, either done to me or done by me. (I couldn’t think of ten that were particularly phenomenal.) Some of these took a few hours, so it was convenient that my two younger brothers were in middle/ high school (and my mom teaching high school), while I was in college… I basically had 8 AM – 3 PM to complete any of these, if needed
6. I’ve switched all of my brothers’ clothes with all the food from our kitchen cabinets. I put all our canned goods and other non-perishables in their dressers, and they had to recover their underwear from the cookie drawer.
5. My family once flipped my bedroom upside-down. Nothing was glued to the ceiling or anything like that, but all my furniture and bed were flipped upside-down, my wall posters were re-taped upside down, etc.
4. My mom hates beets. With a passion. So naturally, I bought about a dozen cans of beets, emptied them into plates and the juices into cups, spread everything around her room, closed the windows and door and turned her fan on high. The smell was… incredible. She slept in my bed that night and forced me to sleep in hers, until the smell went away.
3. I switched my two brothers’ bedrooms. Completely. All of the furniture, clothes, toys, everything… I moved into the opposite room and repositioned them. They just lived in their “new” rooms for a few days before switching everything back.
2. Two years ago, my girlfriend and I decided to completely change our Facebook profile pictures, cover photos, relationship status, and everything else to imply that we had gotten engaged. Some people were a bit skeptical because of the date, but about a hundred people erred on the side of caution and congratulated us. After they found out it was officially a joke, a few of our friends insisted that we only get one “Congratulations on your engagement” post from them, so when we *actually* got engaged last year, they reminded us that we were already congratulated back on April 1st.
Some of these April Fools' jokes are great! In particular, 3,4 and 5 are fantastic! I love the beet idea, mostly because of how it was done. Too bad none of my jokes every reached any of these levels lol.
On June 29 2015 05:17 catplanetcatplanet wrote: more like darkplasmaballer
here's to 30k more
Hahahaha thank you
On June 29 2015 05:22 BigFan wrote: Some of these April Fools' jokes are great! In particular, 3,4 and 5 are fantastic! I love the beet idea, mostly because of how it was done. Too bad none of my jokes every reached any of these levels lol.
On June 29 2015 05:22 BigFan wrote: Some of these April Fools' jokes are great! In particular, 3,4 and 5 are fantastic! I love the beet idea, mostly because of how it was done. Too bad none of my jokes every reached any of these levels lol.
You can always start planning for next year! Haha
lol I wish. Not sure that switching rooms for my siblings will be well received like in your case XD
On June 29 2015 05:17 catplanetcatplanet wrote: more like darkplasmaballer
here's to 30k more
Hahahaha thank you
On June 29 2015 05:22 BigFan wrote: Some of these April Fools' jokes are great! In particular, 3,4 and 5 are fantastic! I love the beet idea, mostly because of how it was done. Too bad none of my jokes every reached any of these levels lol.
You can always start planning for next year! Haha
lol I wish. Not sure that switching rooms for my siblings will be well received like in your case XD
I've been very fortunate to have a family who takes these jokes in stride, and I take it as much as I give it when it comes to pranks
Gratz DPB. Now as a question, what is the least accurate movie you've seen in a mathematical sense. Major studio releases only, no B or C, straight to video mess.
On June 29 2015 18:01 Superouman wrote: That inception picture with Tyson :D
Surprisingly, he wasn't used to that meme on fans' shirts lol.
On June 30 2015 03:00 Deleuze wrote: Gratz on 30k DPB!
Thanks!
On June 30 2015 03:53 ThomasjServo wrote: Gratz DPB. Now as a question, what is the least accurate movie you've seen in a mathematical sense. Major studio releases only, no B or C, straight to video mess.
Oooooh that's a good question! There are two absolute classics that come to mind when people ask me that question, in terms of specific math clips:
1. The Wizard of Oz. The scarecrow tries to show off by reciting the Pythagorean Theorem, but accidentally says that you need an isosceles triangle instead of a right triangle. I'm pretty sure it was a mistake (not purposely scripted wrong) that they just left in because they didn't care. If that wasn't bad enough, in the exact same "definition", he also says square root instead of square. Twice. So he's like... uber wrong. Here's the clip:
2. Good Will Hunting. One of my favorite movies of all time (math + Matt Damon + Robin Williams, holy shit!) has a plot that starts off with Will Hunting (Matt Damon) solving an incredibly hard math problem- while he's the janitor, not a student- that garners the attention of a math professor. Except the math problem is incredibly trivial; it's just disguised with some big words from graph theory. The solution isn't inaccurate or wrong, per se, but the problem is really, really easy to figure out. Here's the explanation for the clip:
Others...
3. I don't know how popular of a film this was, and it's technically not mathematically wrong, but in the movie Cube, an apparent math genius has to think long and hard about whether or not numbers that end in 5 or 2 are prime -_____-' Here's the clip:
4. Just for shits and giggles, here's a shitty movie (Mega Piranha) where a woman and man disagree on whether something is doubling in size every few days... or that something is growing exponentially:
5. I haven't seen the movie Pi, but according to Reddit:
"In the movie Pi (spoilers) the bad guys are looking for the name of God, which is apparently a 100-digit base-22 number written in the Hebrew alphabet. At some point the main guy, a mathematical genius, says, "I'm sure you've written down every 100-letter name! I'm sure you've said them all!" Yeah, you're sure. If it took 1 second to say each permutation, and a million people constantly went through them without pause it would only take 5.5 * 10120 years...
and
"In the title sequence where it starts printing the decimals of "pi", it's wrong after like the 8th digit.
Check it. Movie shows: 3.14159265263 Real first digits of pi: 3.14159265358 For a movie CALLED "Pi" you'd think they would have gotten that right."
On June 30 2015 03:53 ThomasjServo wrote: Gratz DPB. Now as a question, what is the least accurate movie you've seen in a mathematical sense. Major studio releases only, no B or C, straight to video mess.
Oooooh that's a good question! There are two absolute classics that come to mind when people ask me that question, in terms of specific math clips:
1. The Wizard of Oz. The scarecrow tries to show off by reciting the Pythagorean Theorem, but accidentally says that you need an isosceles triangle instead of a right triangle. I'm pretty sure it was a mistake (not purposely scripted wrong) that they just left in because they didn't care. If that wasn't bad enough, in the exact same "definition", he also says square root instead of square. Twice. So he's like... uber wrong. Here's the clip:
2. Good Will Hunting. One of my favorite movies of all time (math + Matt Damon + Robin Williams, holy shit!) has a plot that starts off with Will Hunting (Matt Damon) solving an incredibly hard math problem- while he's the janitor, not a student- that garners the attention of a math professor. Except the math problem is incredibly trivial; it's just disguised with some big words from graph theory. The solution isn't inaccurate or wrong, per se, but the problem is really, really easy to figure out. Here's the explanation for the clip:
3. I don't know how popular of a film this was, and it's technically not mathematically wrong, but in the movie Cube, an apparent math genius has to think long and hard about whether or not numbers that end in 5 or 2 are prime -_____-' Here's the clip:
4. Just for shits and giggles, here's a shitty movie (Mega Piranha) where a woman and man disagree on whether something is doubling in size every few days... or that something is growing exponentially:
5. I haven't seen the movie Pi, but according to Reddit:
"In the movie Pi (spoilers) the bad guys are looking for the name of God, which is apparently a 100-digit base-22 number written in the Hebrew alphabet. At some point the main guy, a mathematical genius, says, "I'm sure you've written down every 100-letter name! I'm sure you've said them all!" Yeah, you're sure. If it took 1 second to say each permutation, and a million people constantly went through them without pause it would only take 5.5 * 10120 years...
and
"In the title sequence where it starts printing the decimals of "pi", it's wrong after like the 8th digit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wHygMeYtREM#t=25 Check it. Movie shows: 3.14159265263 Real first digits of pi: 3.14159265358 For a movie CALLED "Pi" you'd think they would have gotten that right."
Oz was a new one for me, GWH I expected, cube I was super high when I watched it in high school but the pauses are palpable in this clip, and I've not seen pi as either, but seems like a bit of an oversight in the title sequence.
I also love a good B movie as indicated by the source of my username. Check out MST3k if you want a good laugh.
On June 29 2015 18:01 Superouman wrote: That inception picture with Tyson :D
Surprisingly, he wasn't used to that meme on fans' shirts lol.
On June 30 2015 03:00 Deleuze wrote: Gratz on 30k DPB!
Thanks!
On June 30 2015 03:53 ThomasjServo wrote: Gratz DPB. Now as a question, what is the least accurate movie you've seen in a mathematical sense. Major studio releases only, no B or C, straight to video mess.
Oooooh that's a good question! There are two absolute classics that come to mind when people ask me that question, in terms of specific math clips:
1. The Wizard of Oz. The scarecrow tries to show off by reciting the Pythagorean Theorem, but accidentally says that you need an isosceles triangle instead of a right triangle. I'm pretty sure it was a mistake (not purposely scripted wrong) that they just left in because they didn't care. If that wasn't bad enough, in the exact same "definition", he also says square root instead of square. Twice. So he's like... uber wrong. Here's the clip:
2. Good Will Hunting. One of my favorite movies of all time (math + Matt Damon + Robin Williams, holy shit!) has a plot that starts off with Will Hunting (Matt Damon) solving an incredibly hard math problem- while he's the janitor, not a student- that garners the attention of a math professor. Except the math problem is incredibly trivial; it's just disguised with some big words from graph theory. The solution isn't inaccurate or wrong, per se, but the problem is really, really easy to figure out. Here's the explanation for the clip:
3. I don't know how popular of a film this was, and it's technically not mathematically wrong, but in the movie Cube, an apparent math genius has to think long and hard about whether or not numbers that end in 5 or 2 are prime -_____-' Here's the clip:
4. Just for shits and giggles, here's a shitty movie (Mega Piranha) where a woman and man disagree on whether something is doubling in size every few days... or that something is growing exponentially:
5. I haven't seen the movie Pi, but according to Reddit:
"In the movie Pi (spoilers) the bad guys are looking for the name of God, which is apparently a 100-digit base-22 number written in the Hebrew alphabet. At some point the main guy, a mathematical genius, says, "I'm sure you've written down every 100-letter name! I'm sure you've said them all!" Yeah, you're sure. If it took 1 second to say each permutation, and a million people constantly went through them without pause it would only take 5.5 * 10120 years...
and
"In the title sequence where it starts printing the decimals of "pi", it's wrong after like the 8th digit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wHygMeYtREM#t=25 Check it. Movie shows: 3.14159265263 Real first digits of pi: 3.14159265358 For a movie CALLED "Pi" you'd think they would have gotten that right."
Oz was a new one for me, GWH I expected, cube I was super high when I watched it in high school but the pauses are palpable in this clip, and I've not seen pi as either, but seems like a bit of an oversight in the title sequence.
I also love a good B movie as indicated by the source of my username. Check out MST3k if you want a good laugh.
EPT
(Speaking of which, if anyone ever wants to play Heroes with me, please let me know!) 
Last summer, I got engaged to my fiancée, and she just graduated vet school at UPenn. Some of my male friends aren’t/ weren’t interested in planning their own weddings (“I just let her plan everything, whatever… she wants to do it”), but I’m really enjoying the process. Perhaps it’s because we’ve been dating for 9 years- since high school- and have been in a long-distance relationship for pretty much the entire time, but I’m more excited than ever to plan my future with Andrea! Pro-tip: Weddings cost money. Especially in New Jersey. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/EG8U6PV.jpg)
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