Music

I have a few words to say about music:
It's amazing how small fluctuations in air pressure can move a person to tears. Or cause their heart to skip a beat as a tune pauses for a half second longer before plunging on. Music is a wonderful way to relax. It refreshes your head: a sauna of the mind. It can influence and enhance your writing and thoughts (I'm currently listening to the soulful, eccentric music of Kenna), and provides a nice buffer for when there's nothing to talk about. Sometimes, however, music can be harmful. When you're trying to program, do math, or trying to accomplish a very complex task, music can be very distracting. Your mind splits between the music and the task, and you don't accomplish what you wanted to do, nor do justice to the music. It amazes me how often people listen to music when they are doing complex tasks. I wonder how much they lose by listening to music. Perhaps they lose hours and hours of work. Or, maybe they lose nothing. It depends on if their minds are similar to mine.

Gum and Rain

I saw this quote on my pack of Dentyne gum today:

"Tall people may be taller, but the rain also hits them first"

I really don't understand why this quote is supposed to be inspirational, because even though the rain may hit the taller person first, it still hits the shorter person! In the end, both people are equally wet. Plus, the rain hits the taller person maybe a few milliseconds before the shorter person, which in human time really isn't a noticeable amount.

I wish Dentyne would put something more inspirational on their gum wrappers, like

"Every artist was once an amateur"(Emerson), or

"The power of imagination makes us infinite"(Muir).

Answer to Opposites

The two pictures I posted below represented youth and old age. And that's it.

Good Music

Listen to Kenna. His story is a good one. He rose to stardom within the music world; anyone who knew anything about music loved him. The only problem was that the general public didn't like him. For some reason, his music wasn't Britney Spears or Linkin Park enough to succeed. Listen to his music and try to find out. I personally think it might be because his music is difficult to classify: it's almost too quirky for most people to like. It doesn't quite appeal to the hip-hoppers, the rockers, or the alternative people. It's my kind of music, it doesn't really fit in anywhere. Maybe that's why I like it.

Opposites

I took these photos at the barbecue at my friends beach house on the 4th of July. Can you guess why I think these two pictures are opposites? I'll give you a hint: each one represents how I view something.

Toy Soldiers

It seems like so many of our legends and myths come
from really insightful observations about daily life.
And we keep making these same observations over and over.
Look! It's the modern day Sisyphus!

Step by step, heart to heart, left right left
We all fall down like toy soldiers
Bit by bit, torn apart, we never win
But the battle wages on for toy soldiers
~Eminem (Toy Soldiers)

Why Programming Can Be Addictive

Unlike many professional activities, programming often offers an immediate reward. For instance, you can spend a day writing a program and immediately have a tangible result as a testimony of your accomplishment. Not only does programming allow for creativity in what you make, but it also let's you choose how you accomplish what you want. Unlike many jobs, you often aren't restricted by some rigorous procedure of solving a problem, which most people find boring. And even the horrible moments of programming (debugging, understanding code, setting up computers and the like) actually add to the allure of programming, because these terrible moments make your accomplishments that much more important. In programming, you are given the freedom to approach a problem however you like, take on the challenges, and come out victorious (if you persist enough, that is). It is an immediate and very tangible form of goal-challenge-reward that so many of us enjoy. That's why programming is so addictive.

Sleeping in Seattle

I decided to read on the floor today instead of in my usual chair for a change. The book I was reading was interesting, but at times the technical jargon overwhelmed me and I felt myself slowing down and getting a bit sleepy. If I had known what tragedy awaited me on that carpet, I never would have laid down.

I had gotten to a particularly dreary portion of my book, when suddenly the sun came out, and began shining its warm, soothing rays onto my head. As I began slowing down, reading every other word, the sun would fill in my lapses with its soothing lullaby. I began thinking more of sleep and less about my book until the sun finally spoke to me, saying, "It's okay to take a nap, just a little daze, that's all. Naps are healthy! They rejuvinate your body and your mind." I must say, the suns testimonial was quite convincing, so I put my arms down and slowly drifted into sleep...

Apparently I napped for quite a while, because my mom managed not only to spot me, but to take her camera out and snap several pictures of me, without my even noticing!
I finally heard the camera's clicking, and slowly opened my eyes, to see what was up. But, the damage was already done. The photos were taken, and I could do nothing but take the photos with good humor. So I smiled and let my mom take one last picture. The End.

Socks!

You have a certain number of socks in your drawer. But, because you have no sense of style, the only colors your socks come in are red and black. If you draw two socks at random (without replacing them into the drawer...that'd just be silly) the probability of you getting two red socks is 1/2. What is the minimum number of socks you need for this to be true? For a harder version, what is the minimum number of socks you need for this to be true AND for there to be an even number of black socks?

A Puzzle

I was going to write about African child laborors working in copper mines, but instead I'll give you a puzzle.
I found it from a search on the word "google puzzle"

"Using the numbers 3, 3, 8, 8 (in any order), make a mathematical expression that equals 24. You can use only addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (and parentheses), but in any order you wish. Note that you have to use all four numbers; otherwise 3 times 8 would be valid -- and that wouldn't be much of a puzzle, would it?"

There's also a nice solution where you can use any mathematical operators you know (and have been proven beyond a doubt).

A Puzzle

I was going to write about African child laborors working in copper mines, but instead I'll give you a puzzle.
I found it from a search on the word "google puzzle"

"Using the numbers 3, 3, 8, 8 (in any order), make a mathematical expression that equals 24. You can use only addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (and parentheses), but in any order you wish. Note that you have to use all four numbers; otherwise 3 times 8 would be valid -- and that wouldn't be much of a puzzle, would it?"

There's also a nice solution where you can use any mathematical operators you know (and have been proven beyond a doubt).

Death of Zarqawi

Three Women and a Child Dead With Zarqawi
On Thursday CNN asked Americans what they thought about Zarqawis death. It seems like most people are happy, they are almost rejoicing now that this evil person is dead. But I don't think it was right to kill Zarqawi. Detain him, maybe, but not kill him. It doesn't seem like violence is the solution here. Revenge begets revenge, and this will only make Zarqawi's followers hate us more.

We couldn't even kill just Zarqawi. We had to kill a girl and three women along with him. We couldn't even do a clean job.

But that's beside my point. My point is that killing Zarqawi probably wasn't the best option we had given our information (his location, and presumably the means to get there). We're probably just fueling the conflict, not abating it.

How Ironic...

In case you can't read it, the top says "basic equations." I snapped that photo a few weeks back on my way to school. I was trying to make sense of Schrodinger's equations for a test I had that day, I believe.

A Note on Triviality

Something that is trivial is clear, easy and obvious. But triviality is relative. For example, Chinese people might think the Chinese language is trivial, but it is incredibly complicated for everyone else. They key here is to consider your audience (your frame of reference, in physics terms). If I tell you that juggling is easy and trivial, that won't encourage you much, will it? So even if juggling, or math, or whatever you do is easy for you, that's not what's important when communicating with people. What matters is how they view the topic at hand.

So the next time a student asks you "what's the sine of pi/2?" don't say "that's trivial!" Just calmly explain that it's one, and make sure to explain why.

Talk About A Demoralizing Teacher

So, today my physics teacher basically told me I suck at physics and should not pursue physics because I'm terrible at it. He said something along the lines of,

"If you were a doctor and you knew medicine like you knew physics, I wouldn't want to be your patient. Nobody would want to be your patient, because you'd be terrible"

Then he went on to say,
"You should only do what you're good at. If I were you I'd pick one thing, one goal, one thing I'm good at and strive for it."

I completely agree with both statements, (especially the latter), and think I will drop the physics major in favor of computer science (if I get in, that is).

But just in case you were wondering, telling your students that stuff they think is hard is "trivial" (as my professor pointed out, the integral of x^2 exp(-(x-3)^2) from neg. infinity to infinity is trivial) and telling them they suck at whatever it is your teaching isn't the best way to get a student excited about a topic. Even if the student sucks, don't tell them that. Telling someone they suck at something isn't going to make them like or learn it any better.

Solution to Post Problem

I think it's finally time to post the solution to the post problem I posted earlier. The trick is to simply flip the b post upside down. Now, we all know that the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line, and thus the shortest distance from a to b is a straight line. But since ab is a straight line, then theta 1 and theta 2 must be equal by the "opposite angle" theorem (I made it up...don't know what it's called). And that's all, folks!

Actually, another cool fact about this is that this actually proves why the angle of incidence always equals the angle of reflection!

Tests as a Way of Controlling People

I have an idea that I thought I'd throw out (to get some feedback). Sometimes it seems like tests are a way to control people, to basically manage what people do for a short period of time and make them all do one particular thing (take the test). Tests keep people studying, keep people in check lest they do something different. I'm not sure if this is at all valid, but it's a thought.

A Puzzle

Here's a problem that my dad and I came up with today:

n friends are drawing straws to see who will be the designated driver. Instead of drawing straws the usual way, however, a guy draws a straw, and if it's shorter than the rest the guy gets/has to be the designated driver. If it's not shorter than the rest, however, the guy puts the straw back into the pile. Is this a fair game? If not, which person should you be if you don't want to draw the shortest straw?

Language and Identity

One of my English students is writing a paper about the impact of Language on self-identity for immigrants who have travelled to America. Here's my take:
Language's on one's self identity is directly proportional to how much a person values language in the first place. The more one cares about and preserves his/her language, the more it affects his/her identity. I will use myself as an example to illustrate my point.

Because I care about my language, I make a special effort to remember and speak Russian at home. As a result, I view myself differently in different situations. In public (where I speak English) I view myself as American, wheras at home (where I speak Russian) I see myself as Ukranian. My language also affects how others view me. When others find out I speak Russian, they can no longer think of me as a pure American. Rather, I assume I become somewhat of a hybrid comunocapitalist SlavoAmerican.

On the other hand, a person who doesn't care about language cannot possibly identify himself based on his language simply because he doesn't care about it! This person may define himself as an American based on the flag he puts on his lawn, or the French fries he consumes, but not by language. Similarly, others will not identify this person by his language since that's not what makes him unique. People that don't care about language generally adopt the language of their surroundings, and learning that an Italian speaks Italian isn't exactly interesting. As a result, language does not affect the identity of a person who does not care about language.

So what does my epic tell us? That if you ever hear some English professor trying to stuff the idea that language and identity are "intimately interconnected", make sure to take this statement with a grain of salt.

My Next Program

Below is the logo for my next program, InkChat. The program allows you to chat with your friends not only with text, but also with a pen! Anyway, I'd really appreciate everyone's opinions about the logo. And don't say it's good because you know me, or don't want to offend me. I'd be offended if you couldn't be honest enough to say it needed some work. Because obviously it does. My main dilemma right now is the ink puddle, and the splotch under the "k" do I include those or not?