A Mass of Probability

First midterm has a graduate student has come and gone. I think it went well. But if I didn't well, probably so did many other people. I'd say the probability mass function for the scores would fit a Rayleigh distribution.

The relationship between graduate students and undergraduate students is something people should explore more. Well, it's more what preconceptions do undergrads have about graduate students. For example, a common question I've gotten after I tell someone I am a graduate student is, "How old are you?" I have no figures on the average age of 1st year graduate students, but I've gotta imagine it's about 23. Of course this puts me on the spot a little.

Abbreviation Fun

There's an article on CNN (click the title) about how UCSB and UCI are garnering academic acclaim, especially with the recent Nobel Prizes this year (congrats to David Gross and new hire Finn Kydland). In it they note that UCSB has been known as "University of Casual Sex and Beer" and "U Can Stay Buzzed."

Previous to SB, a friend coined the phrase "University of Crazy Students at Beaches." Combining these phrases, we have:

• University of Casual Sex at Beaches
• University of Crazy Students at Beaches
• University of Crazy Sex at Beaches
• University of Crazy Sons of Bitches
• U Crazy Sons of Bitches

Well, the last two aren't really combinations, more like inspirations. Thanks to those who came up with them. Go Gaucho's football. (You know I'm talking about soccer, right).

All you need is; All you want is

Well problem sets to do and life to ignore. But there are things to learn even as it passes you by, and a lesson I learn (or re-learn, or pretend to learn) will be posted at my Xanga site, that I put up, originally with the purpose of writing a column. But I'm too lazy for that.

In other news, I finally took the time to make a geekcode, so that other geeks can know me:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GE/M d s: a-->? C++ ULS>++++ P+(-) L+ E W++ N++ o? K-> w+@ O--@ M@>+ V- PS(+) PE(-) Y+ PGP@ t+(++) 5 X+ R-() tv@ b+>++ DI+(++++) D+ G e++>++++(*) h-- !r !z+@
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Odd that "Geek of Engineering" isn't broken up into subcategories (e.g. GEE, GME, GCE, GNE, etc. or GEE, GEM, GEC, GEN, etc.)

Highway 1: PCH

(As they say, my way or the highway!)

All blogs should have RSS or Atom feeds. I don't want to open 20 different websites when I can scroll through my bookmarks in search of new posts. Thankfully the new Blogger skins have RSS built in, and you can get set up Atom. Get them! Write to your congressman if you must, or you blog provider. Make you blog more accessible.

Sirloin or Fore Shank?

In Surely Your Joking, Mr. Feynman, Feynman describes how he learned to pick up girls from an master of ceremonies and his wife. But first the master of ceremonies proves his knowledge by having his wife get a guy to buy Feynman a champagne cocktail. The thought came to me after a grad student happy hour, which a friend described as a "meat market" (i.e. a place where people go strictly to hook up). Despite the similarities, the meat market doesn't warrant reference to Feynman's adventures.

Upon my arrival, I thought I saw a girl I had not seen in many years. I didn't believe it could be her, and I was more willing to trust probability than my memory. Eventually, I did go up to ask if she was who I thought she was, and it, amainginly was. Still, I could have told you all this without mentioning an ancedote from Dick Feynman.

So here's the connection. When I arrived, she was surrounded by people in her department, and, especially, in her emphasis of her department (mostly girls). There were a lot of them, apparently. When I went up to talk to her, she was surrounded by guys, but hadn't really moved. One of the guys she was talking to acted very much like the guy in Feynman's story, at the very least in my imagination. I noticed some surprise, and then he "very graciously" found a napkin and pen so she and I could exchange information. It's funny to think that he was really trying to get me away as fast as possible and to curry favor with her.

Now this has been a longwinded explanation and probably obscure reference to an observation. So the rest will be quick, and to the point.

The frat that use to occupy the space I live had a rush party this past weekend. I mostly avoided it on account of homework. But I did notice that it started out with a lot more girls than it ended. Perhaps pairing off, or they left cause there wasn't enough guys.

Anyway... enough about the interactions between men and women.

This week has been perhaps the most academically productive I've had in a long time. But still should find a faculty to do research with. Technically, that's what I'm being paid for.