So, today I had a moment. Where I wondered why the *&%$ am I spending all this money on getting tutoring for linear algebra? Clearly, if I were meant to be doing linear algebra, I would be able to understand it without weekly help from a grad student. I continually try to stuff college level math into a brain that probably would be better suited to be getting a liberal arts degree, becoming a secretary or a real estate agent with a slammin’ body, or, if I’m REALLY ambitious, going to law school and becoming a Single Female Lawyer (with a slammin’ body). BUT INSTEAD, I’m going to state school, getting a science degree, and planning to become a physicist or an engineer. It’s not MY PROBLEM that my interests don’t match up with what I’m good at, right?

Oh, and about that slammin’ body? Forget about it! In the time that I have been in college, I have lost weight in all the wrong places, so that my clothes hang off of me in a way that screams “prepubescent” instead of “modelesque”. In fact, if it weren’t for my excessive acne, people might mistake me as the 12 year old in my math class (knowing that there was one, but not knowing who it is). Due to my demanding class schedule, I am too lazy to work out, and thus can no longer do such things as run miles or kick people with a force sufficient enough to push them backward. Oh yeah, and even though I live in a city known for its sun and surf, I look pasty like I spent the last two years in Finland (or inside all the time. Which is how I did spend the last two years). 

But anyway. As I was telling my boyfriend earlier today, “I feel like the only reason I’m still in college is because I want to learn physics and do research.” And I guess that’s a pretty good reason, if I only have one. 

Hello world of tumblr! I still think college is fun, but I haven’t really had much to say about it recently, due to my QUEST TO BE COMPETENT WITH TECHNOLOGY. This is an epic undertaking that I have undertaken this year, a true adventure that will, if all goes well, end in me being able to photosynthesize with the light from my LCD screen. (Skill generally reserved for only the most dedicated CS majors…but maybe as a physics major I can still get in on the action?!)

Anywho, I started a new tumblr ALL ABOUT IT . You can check it out. Or not. Whatever. 

Integral tables will be a big part of my future, I’m sure. 

Though I should know what the integral of 1/(x^1/2) is…on a recent midterm I didn’t recognize that it’s just your average polynomial and that I can just power rule that shit up. I did something retarded with ln and I think the grader of that midterm is convinced that I’m the world’s biggest idiot. In my defense, differential equations seems to have a lot of e^the’s and ln()s…

Also: evaluating definite integrals is the worst. Having to actually **know** how to add? Not cool. 

So, I was casually looking at my facebook info tab yesterday (you know, because I don’t really know what’s on there already), and I saw that I have way more things in my “television” section than any other section (ie, books, movies). I hypothesize that this is for two reasons: first of all, people don’t judge you too harshly on what kind of TV you like (there’s a reason why I keep the music section blank, though I may change that to “rock n’ roll” sometime soon), and second, I have a lower threshold to allow TV shows into my favorite category than, say, movies or books. But I guess another really important reason is that I just really, really like television.

Television is one of those things that I can do when I’m not doing anything else. Since I’m in college, I don’t have to do dishes or clean bathrooms or go to bed early or anything like that. So, instead, I watch TV shows on my computer until like 11 when I go to bed. (Fascinating existence, no?) TV helps me wind down after a day of lecture, work, homework, awkward social interactions, not so awkward social interactions, exams, awkward interactions with tech support people…ya know. I can just sit down in front of my computer and get transported to a fully realized fantasy world of excellent characters and plots that fit neatly into 20 or 40 minute packets. 

TV is the perfect form of diversion for a college student (aside from video games) because it comes in episodes (as opposed to movies, where you really do have to sit for like 2 hours without breaks) and has a lot of content (as opposed to movies, which only have 2 hours of content). That is, as a college student, I can watch TV in segments convenient to my attention span (which is slightly better than that of most weasels) and I can watch A LOT of it. Perfection. 

So, directly from my facebook wall, here’s a list of some of my favorite TV shows:

• House
• Firefly
• 30 Rock
• Star Trek
• I Love the ’80s
• The Guild
• Futurama
• Avatar: The Last Airbender

And shows that I’m currently watching:

• Doctor Who/Torchwood 
• Pokemon

I’ve been planning a short essay on fantasy worlds for awhile now. So, while I’m curled up in a little ball of nervous energy waiting for my day of reckoning with multivariable differentiation, I’ll make this post! 

I recently watched the excellent TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Like much good fantasy, I couldn’t get enough of it. While I was out sick for a couple of days, I raced through the episodes and found myself drawn into the world of the show to where I would imagine myself earth bending or something like that. I would say that Avatar is an excellent example of a fully realized fantasy world with its own aesthetic and lots of things for the viewer to discover and fall into. 

I am a sucker for good fantasy worlds. As a consumer, I relish the thrill of being drawn into the vision of some great writer, animator, illustrator, or director. Sure, I love many types of fiction but the fantasy world is a special place. I especially like fantasy worlds that are developed over a series of books, TV episodes, or films, or a combination of these. If a world is developed in a single novel or film, then the world basically only exists for the plot of that certain novel or film, and is not a place where anything can happen. Though Avatar: The Last Airbender has an overarching plot, the length of the series and the amount of side adventures makes me feel like I really know the world of the series and can truly escape there. 

Another fantasy world that I love to explore is that of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I have played the two Knights of the Old Republic games and am continually impressed with the depth of the storyline and the amount of care and detail in every aspect of the adventure. The Old Republic is truly a beautifully imagined place that I have many a time wished was real. 

I am often excited to pick up a book, or begin to watch a series, or start a video game that promises not only a plot with fun characters, philosophical musings, and epic clashes between the forces of good and evil, but also a new world to explore, a world that started as someone’s vision and is now a real place in its medium and in the mind of each consumer. 

THIS BLOG HAS OFFICIALLY BECOME MULTIMEDIA. Here’s a picture of my most recent artistic endeavor, a Mobius Strip made out of two gum wrappers during a 31B review sesh today. It now sits proudly on my bookshelf next to my clock. 

The sculpture has no tape or glue or other adhesives! I got the gum wrappers to stick together by sliding one inside the other and pressing down on the edges during my walk in the heat of the day from the math building back to the dorms. 

So, I love pi day. I may be a nerd, but I am a social nerd. And the best day for social nerds are nerd holidays. Like pi day. Where you get to eat pie, talk about pi, and in my friends’ case play rock band (and in my case, fail at rock band while in beginner mode). Anyways, pi day is good times. 

The picture above is from a bookstore window in the Marina from last year’s pi day. (I *do* celebrate every year, yes.)