kindle 2
First of all: I didn’t buy a kindle 2.
The SU library recently started offering kindles for checkout. They come with a selection of books already loaded, some text books and some pleasure reading books. Here are my and Ali’s thoughts on the experience:
The reports that eInk contrast is as good as newsprint are generous. I didn’t find it to be that good. I’d rather actually read a newspaper than one on the kindle.
I really didn’t like that it costs 99¢ to read a blog for a month on the kindle. This says to me: “get a laptop”.
The whole blinking process on page flip was rather jarring, I didn’t like it.
The placement and style of the buttons aren’t good, and the 5-way switch (like the little red mouse-button on some laptops) should be used differently or even removed all together.
It feels really goddamned slow.
Personally I’m rather disappointed, this is a technology I have been waiting for since the late nineties. I really wanted to like the device. But I didn’t. I’ll keep an eye on it, just not as closely.
snow
Well, technically it’s the third snow of the season
but this is the first one that actually turned the ground white!
First "real" snow on December 1, 2009
that’s a lot of driving!
We drove down to Long Island this weekend to be with Ali’s family for Thanksgiving.
Syracuse, NY to Long Island: 5 hours (I drive slow, okay!? I want to enjoy it)
Some driving around, on Wednesday and Thursday, I wasn’t the driver for that stuff. Then on Saturday, I had to take Ali to the airport so she could jet off to LHCb week in Geneva. You go you jet setter you! Anyway, I got to drive down to Newark airport and back on the Belt Parkway (ugh), it’s a terrible road. But I did get to cross the Varrazano Narrows Bridge! It is both the largest bridge in North America, and offers a stunning view of Manhattan.
Long Island to Newark Airport, and back, 4 hours (traffic, traffic, traffic). Did I mention that the iPhone’s map app, with traffic layer is just awesome! Now I can know how long I’ll be stuck in the miserable traffic jam.
The next day, I drove back up to Syracuse, along the more scenic NY-17 route. This goes through the Catskill Mountains, which reminded me a lot of the foothills of the Cascade mountains. “Home” in other words. I also saw something I would have thought fit the description of a hollow, but it turns out it was more of a glen, either way there was lots of interesting things to see along the side of the road. I even saw one fly-fisherman. Hopefully I’ll get to do that again sometime soon.
Long Island to Syracuse: 5 hours.
Other interesting things: Verrazano Narrows Bridge, Throggs Neck Bridge, George Washington Bridge, East River (actually a straight), Merrick Road.
I wish google maps did a better job of identifying things that aren’t roads (like bodies of water, ie the East river). Oh well.
qualified for what, exactly?
Let me just come right out and say it: I passed the qual.
That would be the Syracuse University Physics Department PhD Qualifying Exam. For those that don’t know, it’s a two day exam, 3 hours each day, 5 problems each day. These are homework level problems, which means, if they’re assigned as a homework problem, they’ll probably take between 1-5 hours to complete. And we have to do 5 problem in 3 hours.
Passing this test is considered a Big Deal. Very important, more or less do or die kind of a thing. Once you’ve passed it, your done demonstrating that you are capable of being a PhD. You know your stuff, and you know how to figure things out. You just have to carry on doing that.
So, what am I qualified to do?
Well, I guess that would be 4-5 more years of work on a research topic. Write a thesis and present it. You know, the hard-but-fun part of a PhD program.
recent foods
some of the recent foods we have been enjoying:
Saturday: blue berry pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes. party foods: see the picture!
Make sure that you click through- all the dishes are noted with Flickr’s fancy noting system.
Sunday: grilled cheese sandwiches. Noteworthy because one of them was on baguette, so extra delicious. But then again, there was no fresh thyme, so it sort of cancels. Also we had “the best tomato soup ever”, which is the same recipe as the tomato soup of ‘09.
Monday: breakfast: greek yogurt with peanut butter, honey and graham crackers. dinner: see this picture:
Tuesday: dinner: home made pizza! I can state that the home pizza system is now up and running. we made four, but only at 2 pizzas:
-broccoli and yellow peppers (a favorite)
- portabella, shitake, and onion
- cheese and leftovers other toppings
- tomato, shallot and blue cheese
the winner of the two we ate last night was portabella, shitake and onion. We also ate the broccoli and yellow pepper, which was also delicious. Sorry, no pictures.
greek tofu pitas
a pita filled with lemony tofu, hummus, red onion, feta and cucumbers.
For the lemon dressing
- zest of one lemon (again, I shave the lemon with a paring knife and mince the larger zest pieces to tiny little pieces)
- scant 1/4 cup olive oil
- black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano (fresh is better, I used dried)
- 1/4 teaspoon each thyme, rosemary
- pinch red pepper flakes
Mix all that together and let the flavors meld for at least an hour, overnight is better.
For the tofu, cut the block of extra firm tofu into 6 steaks, saute over medium heat for about 8-10 minutes per side, until dark golden. Toss in the lemon oil mixtures, mix around to coat, maybe a minute or two. A good size pinch of salt on top, then take them out of the pan.
I used store bought hummus and feta/red onion/cucumber stuff. I’d rather have made it myself, but finals are fast approaching.
Cut the pita in half, smear some hummus on one side, insert your tofu, put a nice pile of the other ingredients on top, and nom nom away. Delicious!
Variations: grill the tofu instead of saute, before coating with lemon stuff. Tzatziki, or other dressing.
Just something I thought up on my way home from school today, worked out quite well.
lemon pasta
I made lemon pasta last night, for the first time in a few years. Also, this rendition was the closest to the lemon pasta I had in Italy back in 1997. The recipe was very simple, and quite tasty. I made this up on the spot last night:
- zest of one lemon. I used a paring knife to “shave” off the zest, then minced it to little tiny pieces (also cut my thumb).
- 3-4 Tablespoons butter
- 2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- salt and black pepper
- 1 pound small pasta (bow ties, penne, etc.)
melt the butter in a pan over low heat, add the olive oil, the zest and the salt. warm through. squeeze in lemon juice. set heat to as low as possible or turn off. cook the pasta to al dente, drain, add the sauce to the pasta. Serve with Parmesan cheese.
We also had lightly sauted asparagus: olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, asparagus. A very yummy and quick Friday night dinner!
spring (for the moment)
SU Quad on a sunny spring afternoon.
It sure looks like spring has sprung on the quad! Could snow at any moment though…
Oh man I’m busy!
I’ve definitely got the first-year physics grad student blues these days. By blues I mean, oh man I’m so busy I can barely catch my breath. It’s interesting and fun and just a whole lot of work. After some quite significant personal life events stopped required all of my free time I noticed that I am actually really really busy with school work. Just to give you a feel for it, I’ve got either three assignments (e&m I, stat mech, qm II) or two assignments (e&m I, stat mech) due every week. That’s probably on the order of 10-15 hours per assignment! Plus classes, and group meetings, and don’t forget eating and sleeping. Here’s a quick recap of what I’ve done since I last wrote anything (like a month ago!)
- got pizza making equipment, peel and stones. stones (really pavers) were too massive. on the lookout for unglazed terracotta tiles.
- went to Boston to help a friend move. Had a good time, but Boston did it again: I got behind on my homework for a few days!
- made a new friend and cooked a fabulous dinner with her! We had orange salad, zucchini soup, lasagna eggplant rolls, and vanilla pots de creme. everything was delicious! Yes, we were either cooking, eating or relaxing for about 7 hours.
- went running and played racquetball.
- started getting into the thick of ‘The Office’ season 4, it seems to be jumping the shark.
- Fellow LIGO-er Sam came to SU for a faculty interview.
- worked on about 10 assignments! holy smokes, that’s a lot.
- did some, but not enough LIGO research.
- Watched 300, the pink panther, hellboy 2, a scanner darkly. Sadly, 300 was the one liked the most out of these.
I guess it doesn’t seem like that much, it sure felt like it was really packed in there. I’m looking forward to taking a day or two off during spring break!
music of the month, February 2009 edition
Below, you will find my set list for the month. Normally I like to listen to music in whole albums, but sometimes you have to just pick and choose a few songs. Also, I’ve listened to my White Stripes radio station a lot, and just added some Zydeco.
“Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand
“Ocean Breathes Salty” by Modest Mouse
“Steady As She Goes” by The Raconteurs
“When You Were Young” by The Killers
“Your Touch” by The Black Keys
“Where Is My Mind?” by Pixies
“I Turn My Camera On” by Spoon
“Where Flamingos Fly” by Gil Evans
“Mad World” by Michael Andrews & Gary Jules
“still alive” by GLaDOS
“Hash Pipe” by Weezer
“She Don’t Use Jelly” by The Flaming Lips
“Love You Madly” by Cake
