Get This Man a Doctor

Sitting on my balcony this Sunday, this film crew randomly walks up to our house and starts filming. Apparently Japanese television has come up all the nutty things it can and has turned to documentary pieces on small Brooklyn neighborhoods.

The best part was the quick interview the producer gave with our neighbors, who were sitting outside enjoying the day like the rest of us:

Her: (thickly accented) Hello! You have a very pretty garden!

Him: (nothing)

Her: Are you warm?

Him: (nothing)

Her: It’s a very nice day are you hot?

Him: I’m good

Her: Is your car blocking the sun?

Him: Not really

Her: Okay thank you have a nice day!

After spending about twenty minutes today catching up on the Virginia Tech story, I’ve used up about as much energy as I can. Most people have used the story as a political soapbox, spouting nonsense about everything from gun control and racism to prescription drugs and the media.

I can find no deeper meaning in this tragedy than as a reminder of the frailty of human lives and minds.

On a personal note, I’ve thought carefully about whether this event will have any effect on my teaching next year, since I will likely have a sizable class of undergrads. And when I honestly consider it, I expect that I will have the rampage in the back of my mind, and probably form prejudices about students who seem too introverted. But, so it goes.

It’s official

I’m in Miami, spending the next week at my Mom’s place. Currently it is 32 degrees and snowing in New York. In Miami it is a cold day—probably won’t get into the 80’s. You hate me don’t you?

Yeah a post titled still waiting… I know. No word yet from schools, and I’m getting pretty apprehensive. Some of my peers told me that they got their acceptance/rejection letters right around this time, so I should brace myself. Also, one particular school promised me a decision in “mid-Feburary” and I believe that it has reached late-mid—nay even early-late-February. Grumble.

I’ve been debating whether I’ll post where I am accepted on this site. I decided against it—that’s not something I want to broadcast. Instead, I’m providing the official Get This Man a Doctor Grad School Accept-o-Meter (at right) that gives you all the information you need to know. It is currently set to straight face… expect it to reach frowny sometime soon.

Via Ze Frank, this little flash game lets you draw a 2-D figure, then animates it dancing for you in 3-D. The soundtrack’s a bit annoying, and normally I don’t go for dumb little flash games, but I always enjoy anything that involves actual creativity.

This reminds me of the One Million Masterpiece art project, especially since you can see everyone else’s figure being drawn.

Oh yeah, I made the whole crew:

It’s so cold outside my little desktop application has to use its full montage of weather icons for this week.

24 degrees with a 13 degree wind chill, and we still can’t get more than two inches of snow? Weather, I’ve done gone given up on you.

Nice application [OS X], by the way, as it’s the only one I’ve found that is: 1) Reliable, and 2) Fast.

“Jerry Orbach gave his heart and soul to acting, and the gift of sight to two New Yorkers. Jerry Orbach was a gifted actor and his greatest role was that of an eye donor. Jerry decided to donate his eyes. When he passed away, he left behind the beautiful gift of sight. It only takes a minute to sign up to be an eye donor. Do it today.”

New York really cherishes its dead celebrities, especially Jerry Orbach. You would think he not only played a New York detective on TV, but also a mayor, firefighter, school teacher, and maybe even a patron saint.

So I guess it was no surprise when these posthumous ads came out reminding New Yorkers that, like you, Jerry Orbach had eyes, and unlike you, he’s put them to good use.

What’s disturbing about the barrage of ads isn’t Jerry’s accusatory smirk berating my egoism, or even the adjacent photo of him reminding me that his eyes did not go to the grave. It’s the fact that not one, but two New Yorkers now have the gift of sight. It isn’t necessarily the case, but what this suggests to me is that the The Eye Bank of New York chooses to dole out eyes based on greatest utility—why give one person binocular vision when you can give two people monocular vision.

I wonder if I can choose what system of ethics I donate my eyes under. Can I chose to donate them to the Philosopher Kings?

Crap! Yesterday was National Pie Day and no one informed me! I forgot to send out my yearly Pie Day greeting cards. Why is this not in my national holidays in iCal? Can we have a redo?

Rest assured, today there will be a plethora of pie eating to make up for yesterday.

On a math related side note, you shouldn’t try and calculate π in binary (it starts out 11.001001…) or else fall victim to a number of lawsuits and possibly terrorist threats. Because π might or might not be normal, which means that if you calculate it you will generate every binary string, and therefore every copyrighted work, every piece of child pornography, and every secret government document. So be cool, don’t be a fool, and don’t calculate π.

Just when I thought it was over and the four-digit cost for applying to schools was final, I get an email from Carnegie Mellon informing me that they never got the GRE scores I sent back in October. I don’t really know why, but I’m guessing it has to do with the fac tthat the department is “Mathematical Sciences” instead of “Mathematics” and therefore has a code of 20740799 instead of 20740703.

Total cost to get ETS to send another copy: $15. Plus $6 for the phone call. Yippee.