This is what I got for Prof Trivia for the graduation dinner so far:
1. Some nerd stuff I currently own: a Grimlock masterpiece transformer, a miniature DeLorean from Back to the Future, a replica of Mal's gun from Firefly, and not one but two sonic screwdrivers. You could make a multiple choice question out of that. I could bring one of my sonic screwdrivers to dinner if it helps.
2. A few years ago back, I taught a class on Halloween evening while wearing a devil costume. I used my pitchfork as a pointer. Picture attached.
3. I am using an old computer's dual-processor liquid cooling unit as a bookend on my office bookshelf right now.
4. My undergrad graduation dinner was held at Varadero, Cuba (that one will make the kids jealous!)
5. During my first week here, Orientation Week 2008, one of the red-shirt Student Ambassadors confused me for a first-year student.
6. Related to 5: I eventually got into the habit of wearing ties to work so people would stop taking me for an undergrad. It did not help.
7. I spent exactly 10 years as a university student. I began my undergrad in September 1998, and ended my post-doc in August 2008 when I became a prof.
8. As an undergrad, I was director of the Science & Engineering student newspaper. One year we forgot to make a Halloween issue. So we made up for it by merging it into our Christmas issue and making a Noelloween issue.
9. While I was doing my Master's, I figured out how to get out on the roof of the Engineering building. One of my friends and I would go there to hang out and have coffee.
10. My father is also a university professor, and my brother is getting his Ph.D. this year.
11. Back in Laval University (Québec City) in 2001, my friends and I got a visit from Campus Security for playing with a laser pointer in the residences during the Summit of the Americas. Some bystanders were apparently afraid we had a sniper riffle hidden in the dorm room.
12. My first job ever was at McDonald's.
13. My second job was doing tech support at the university. I did that one for two years. I quit the day I got fed up and yelled at someone on the phone because they couldn't find the "view" menu in the menu bar in Windows.
My prof wants us to calculate the Jordan normal forms of two (non-triangular) 4x4 matrices.
Just in case anyone online right now knows: Is there an easy way to do this or is he just being a dick?
Matlab?
I don't recall him telling us to use Matlab, and I checked the eigenvalues* for the first matrix in Matlab and some of them are fractions with imprecise representations.
*man, I don't even want to calculate the characteristic polynomial for this thing, let alone factor it.
Bama on
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DynagripBreak me a million heartsHoustonRegistered User, ClubPAregular
edited March 2011
hmm, someone upped the cookie ante to girl scouts' thin mints and peanut butter cookies in the break room.
reading news stories about wisconsin from various sources really really highlights biases of each source
Politico's regular articles are about as bad as WSJ op-eds these days
the best irony? Half the comment are insulting them for being too liberal
like new york times says "Assembly Set to Approve Limits on Collective Bargaining"
NPR "Senate Advances Bill Curbing Union Rights"
WSJ non op-ed "GOP Ends Union Stalemate Wisconsin Republicans Maneuver Bill Curbing Bargaining Rights Through Senate"
nexuscrawler on
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DynagripBreak me a million heartsHoustonRegistered User, ClubPAregular
edited March 2011
boo, meeting. i enjoyed my 2 years of employment where i never had to attend meetings. Can't really experience that when you're involved with government work.
The NYT's been weird lately. For lack of a better word. I don't want to say their reporting's gone to shit, but there seems to have been a few articles of theirs of late that have been of pretty questionable quality.
Posts
Like I said, the nakedness of this power grab is astounding. You'd think they have some subtlety.
I knew EvilBob was down lately, but I had no idea...
Indeed, good work ELM.
Good? Enough? More?
Just in case anyone online right now knows: Is there an easy way to do this or is he just being a dick?
*man, I don't even want to calculate the characteristic polynomial for this thing, let alone factor it.
outstanding
This is hilariously depressing.
sometimes it's the only way to keep pussy from running away.
Politico's regular articles are about as bad as WSJ op-eds these days
the best irony? Half the comment are insulting them for being too liberal
"FUCK OFF YOU DICK I'M SLEEPING!"
like new york times says "Assembly Set to Approve Limits on Collective Bargaining"
NPR "Senate Advances Bill Curbing Union Rights"
WSJ non op-ed "GOP Ends Union Stalemate Wisconsin Republicans Maneuver Bill Curbing Bargaining Rights Through Senate"
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/09/wisconsin-republicans-plan-pass-budget-democrats-sources-say/
For instance:
Union Man Hates Unions (But Wait, He's Never Been In a Union): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/us/22union.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1
TX Community Really Worried About Well-being of Accused Rapists; Victim Whut Now? http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2011/03/new-york-times-texas-rape
really nothing is past yet
the assembly still has t vote then the governor has to sign it
yeah fucking teachers
moochers
they get summers off
what else could they want
now most of em will get 12 months a year off!
serves them right
should have picked a better job then
teachers
leave those kids alone
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
you....haven't been paying much attention have you?
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
I try not to. I'd rather not have a drinking problem.