My thesis defense went great: they recommended that I go immediately for a PhD, and gave me an 'A'. Now here's hoping my last exam goes equally well.

And Lazarus is feeling better, he has started to explore a little bit, and I even caught him playing once. However, he is still hopping on one leg and only uses one wing.

Last weekend when I was at my Naginata practice, and found a crow with a broken wing sitting in the park, a sitting duck for marauding dogs, cats, and football players. We gave him (I've arbitrarily decided that it's a "he") water, and he perked up a little bit, although he was still barely distinguishable from a corpse. When a football player came ( Read more... )

This morning I printed the final copies of my thesis, with their blue covers and beautiful color illustrations, and handed them in to the department secretary. Yesterday I took a draft to the department secretary, and she was so relieved that I was finally submitting the thesis that she just asked me if I followed the formatting rules, and approved ( Read more... )

Yesterday I gave the open presentation of my thesis, and my advisor's asking for the final thesis in less then a week. Which is good, but it means I have a lot of writing to do. So far I've only written most of a first draft, but I've already found major and minor errors that I will need to correct before submitting. And I'll have to write out all ( Read more... )

After swimming in the ocean five hours ago, as I'm sitting in my chair typing I still feel like the room is moving slowly up and down. When I stand with my eyes closed, I feel myself swaying side to side at the same rhythm ( Read more... )

If you are feeling down and need something to cheer you up, here is a list of things not to do (personal experience from the last couple of days):
- Read the short stories at Girls Are Pretty Forever . These often surreal stories will crush any glimmers of hope in your spirit, and make you laugh while they do so. NSFW, especially if your censors ( Read more... )

Season 1 was ok, Jang Chae-Ohk showed some character, kicked some ass. All of the sudden, in season 2, she changes into the typical Hollywood bimbo, and her main part to play is hostage (numerous times!) Whenever the story slows down, she goes alone to the rebels and is taken hostage again. All that is missing is that she will be tied to the ( Read more... )

Before today, the only non-periodic tiling I was familiar with was the Penrose tiling. However, there are vast numbers of different unique tilings, with different symmetry numbers:


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Imagine the sea so calm that you can see the waves you make as you swim spreading out around you, and the water is so clear and green you can see your shadow on the rippled sand far below you. You just keep swimming and feel your body floating in the gentle waves, rocking as if it were a boat.


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Since I've been swimming in the sea a lot lately -- an activity I highly recommend, especially if you like watching fish. On that note, click on these sea-life comics:

• "Herman the Manatee Gets Hit by a Boat" -- the title says it all.


• Odd Fish -- Great drawings, horrible sense of humor (but every once in a while there's a good one). Also the ( Read more... )