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Year One: D'end!

Monday April 30th, around coffee time

Me.

Ack -- it's been a month. Unfortunately I don't remember what I did exactly. I'm guessing I did a lot of work. Yes... work. That sounds plausible.

There has been no baking of note this month. There was a chocolate-cake-from-a-box, and a custard tart (aka giant fried egg) which got tossed. I've recently watched about a season and a half worth of Babylon 5, which may account for the lack of baking opportunities. I've also have an extremely slow Go game going on with Michael Holroyd.

Die Europäer
Slowest Go game ever.
Holroyd.
Team Z
Fencing I
Fencing II

On the work front there has been a bunch of undergrad PL related festivities -- grading, coming up with crackpot assignments, etc. Tomorrow I'm doing a 75 minute lecture, which has taken me all of 12 hours to prepare for *sigh.* My own class work has been unexciting.

Other events include last week's CS Trivia Bowl. Together with Holroyd I was part of team μγ. The name was supposed refer to my undergrad teammates, but they got stuck in traffic :-( Holroyd and I took a significant lead over the other teams (*cough* amateurs *cough*) before succumbing to such questions as "How many stars in the night sky are visible to the naked eye?" Double you tee eff...

Also noteworthy is the fact that I still haven't lethally injured myself while fencing. My most recent feats include getting de-helmet-ed by Wes, and getting stabbed in the back by Ray.

Comments:


  1. Pieter Hooimeijer:

    Almost forgot: I also did a 30-minute presentation for Theory Lunch on April 10th. For more info about Theory Lunch, look here.

    My slides, which are sort of generic and uninteresting, are here (warning: PowerPoint file).

    reply to this comment
    (2007-04-30 21:35:33)

  2. Arjo Hooimeijer:

    Just of out curiousity (sorry cat): How many stars in the night sky _are_ visible to the naked eye?

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-01 12:53:41)

  3. Isabelle:

    Apparently it's 3000, accurate to an order of magnitude.

    I maintain that this answer depends on the quality of your eyesight. The number visible to 20/20 eyesight is far different than, say, 20/40. I thought there were about 10 stars visible to the naked eye till I got my new glasses.

    I demand photo credits.

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-01 13:48:21)

  4. Arjo Hooimeijer:

    inspired by Isabelle — #3 Thanks, although those eyesight numbers don't mean much to me.. Is 20/20 better or worse than 20/40?

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-01 14:23:08)

  5. Pieter Hooimeijer:

    inspired by Isabelle — #3 Okie... thanks to Isabelle for those pictures that I obviously didn't take myself ;)

    They're also recognizable by a slightly different aspect ratio...

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-01 14:39:19)

  6. Sista Kim:

    I stopped counting at 100... my eyes got heavy and I started snoring... At this moment no stars are visible to the naked eye here. I hope that doesn't have anything to do with my eyesight.

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-01 15:45:44)

  7. Isabelle:

    inspired by Arjo Hooimeijer — #4 20\20 is perfect eyesight. If the average person can see something clearly 20 feet away, then so can you. 20\40, on the other hand, means that the average person can see it clearly 40 feet away, while you must be 20 feet away. Ergo 20\20 > 20\40.

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-01 23:38:09)

  8. Hooimama:

    inspired by Arjo Hooimeijer — #2inspired by Isabelle — #3 inspired by Arjo Hooimeijer — #4 inspired by Pieter Hooimeijer — #5 inspired by Sista Kim — #6 inspired by Isabelle — #7

    Go on, all of you! I'm having a great time reading your comments!

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-02 01:15:21)

  9. Arjo Hooimeijer:

    inspired by Isabelle — #7 Ok, thanks for making that clear. Wouldn't recommend getting as close as 20' from a star though :-)

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-02 10:55:12)

  10. Isabelle:

    inspired by Arjo Hooimeijer — #9 Not unless you have a special *burning* desire...

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-02 11:09:00)

  11. Pieter Hooimeijer:

    inspired by Arjo Hooimeijer — #9 inspired by Isabelle — #10 Turns out the corona for most stars is on the order of 100x hotter than the surface of the star itself. So anywhere between 20' and a few thousand miles will do the trick in terms of *burning.* (wikipedia)

    Hell we're 149.598×10^6km away from the sun and I still get burnt.

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-02 12:38:12)

  12. Arjo Hooimeijer:

    inspired by Pieter Hooimeijer — #11 On the other hand by the time you get there the star is probably gone so might as wel give it a shot.. Bbiab ;-)

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-02 15:15:12)

  13. Isabelle:

    Nathan has competition... He even spoke Dutch to her when she wouldn't stop crying for hours. She liked that for some reason...

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-11 23:08:32)

  14. Sista Kim:

    inspired by Isabelle — #13 Who's this then? At least let Nathan know who he has to compete with for his uncle's attention! Pieter seems to have a great effect on small children... maybe he communicates on their level. He wants Nathan's first words to be 'groovy baby'. Too bad: his first word is MOM!!!

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-12 04:50:24)

  15. De moeder:

    inspired by Isabelle — #13 inspired by Sista Kim — #14 I know why babies like Pieter's voice, but I'm not gonna tell! :-)

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-12 12:04:35)

  16. Pieter Hooimeijer:

    I'm at Colgate =)

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-13 19:46:46)

  17. De moeder:

    inspired by Pieter Hooimeijer — #16 And I'm jealous! :-)

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-14 09:20:10)

  18. Sista Kim:

    Give our love to the Tuckers please!

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-14 14:37:33)

  19. Pieter Hooimeijer:

    inspired by Pieter Hooimeijer — #16 I'm still at Colgate woohoo =)

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-14 16:15:37)

  20. Arjo Hooimeijer:

    inspired by Pieter Hooimeijer — #19 What are you doing at Colgate?

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-14 17:47:27)

  21. Isabelle:

    inspired by Arjo Hooimeijer — #20 I was under the impression that he had loads of stuff here to pick up before he moved into his new apartment... Apparently he actually had a blanket, flight controller joysticks and a box mostly full of ramen. Your brother is a tricky one.

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-14 21:51:19)

  22. De moeder:

    inspired by Isabelle — #21

    Lol!! Could have told you that!

    It's probably stupid of me, but I don't know the word "ramen", only the Dutch version and Dutch ramen are windows ... :-(

    Do you like Colgate by the way?

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-15 03:58:46)

  23. De moeder:

    inspired by Pieter Hooimeijer — #19 And I'm still jealous, woohoo :-)

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-15 08:56:06)

  24. Michael:

    Oh noes what a terrible picture!

    μγ was clearly the superior team.

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-15 10:10:32)

  25. Arjo Hooimeijer:

    inspired by Isabelle — #21 Do not underestimate the importance of the flight controller he bought with _my_ ThinkGeek gift certificate :-)

    Tricky one indeed.. I'm so proud, I taught him every trick he knows ;-)

    inspired by De moeder — #22 I think ramen are noodles.. Also not to be underestimated.

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-15 19:02:35)

  26. Pieter Hooimeijer:

    inspired by Arjo Hooimeijer — #25 The flight controller(s) are important. They came from amazon though, and I think I used a $25 math prize for part of it. I think I got some nerd-related books from ThinkGeek at the time... and of course a binary clock.

    And yes. I just drove 1000 miles for a box of noodles. I'm not even kidding, sadly -- that's what was in there. The real question is, of course, can one still eat Ramen after it's been sitting in a basement for a year?

    Anyway, I'm back in Charlottesville. More news once I manage to get my spine out of its current car-seat shape.

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-15 20:07:17)

  27. Isabelle:

    inspired by De moeder — #22 Yes, Colgate was very pretty. It kind of reminded me of my undergrad school so now I have to drag Pieter off there for a visit. Fortunately, it's only half an hour drive away from Charlottesville.

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-16 15:12:32)

  28. Bridget:

    inspired by Pieter Hooimeijer — #26 I remember the binary clock! Do you still have that? And I think that you can eat Ramen after twenty years in a basement, since it's basically pure sodium! Although I am an English major, and I don't know what happens to sodium in twenty years. A moist basement might be a problem.

    Er...yeah...anyway, glad you liked Colgate, Isabelle! And since Pieter took you for an 8 hour drive to his undergraduate alma mater, I think you can manage to convince him to travel a 1/2 hour!

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-16 18:51:14)

  29. De moeder:

    inspired by Isabelle — #27 I just finished the campus tour there! Nice small college, especially compared to Uva! Did you have a good time there?

    inspired by Bridget — #28 How's life, Bridget?

    reply to this comment
    (2007-05-17 08:54:41)

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