I have been busy, so no posts recently. OTOH, I'm trying to keep a log of research and other physics stuff. If you want to read it, go over to http://fivemegs.blogspot.com and subscribe or check it out. It really will only contain the stuff that I do out at school whereas this is more ( Read more... )

Good: Took my Graduate Record Exams this last week. For those who don't know these things, they are the standardized entrance exams for grad school, like the SATs. As a consequence, they are a good deal more difficult. Due to the glories of computer-based testing, I have unofficial scores already... Verbal was 660, which is perfectly respectible, ( Read more... )

OK, I know that sounds ominous, but hey ( Read more... )

Despite my efforts to the contary, I passed all my classes... even the ones I was totally certain I was going to fail. In the end, it was 3 B+ grades and a lonely B pulling up the back of the pack. Now once more into the breach dear friends... 18 units this quarter. I’m gonna die ( Read more... )

My finals are done... Wednesday night was brutal, tho. I was up until 4am chasing my tail on the Thermodynamics final. You know it’s bad when you have eight problems and can only solve two of them, and even then you don’t feel confident in the solutions... I was feeling really stupid until I saw all the sad sacks milling around outside the door to ( Read more... )

I’ve had an interesting set of talks recently, and I thought I’d digest them and share. Firstly, and old friend of mine and I spent some time doing a post-mortem on our shattered hopes. We decided that the key element is that people are still acting like a bunch of frightened children. Something in them wants a Father figure... an infallible ( Read more... )

I'm almost done with the first round of midterms... thusfar it's two As and one C... which was better than I was thinking I'd done. Aparently someone got nearly zero which brount the average down a notch or two. I am pretty sure I'll get a B there. I was woefully unprepared for that test. Woefully ( Read more... )

So I'm here avoiding what I should be doing. I have what is quite possibly the most difficult exam I've ever faced, and should be working on it, but can't yet bring myself to face the next problem. I really can't afford to freak out at this point, and the fear that might happen is part of the stress... You know what I need? I need an argument. A ( Read more... )

Boy, I've been lax at posting anything... it's been a busy month. Let's try for some quick updates.

CSULA admissions thing is finally done... I have the following classes:

• PHYS 410A Math for Physicists
  
• PHYS 427 Thermodynamics
  
• PHYS 433 Solid State Physics
  
• MATH 325 Mathematical Notation and Proof
  

In other words... I'm seriously geeking out here. I' ( Read more... )

You know the old thing about dropping the frog in hot water vs. putting it in cold water and heating slowly? Stress is like that too... when it hits you all sudden-like, you are immediately aware that it's time to get out of the pan, but growing over time, well, it just becomes part of the background ( Read more... )