I'm Going Going, Back Back

After a long 3 days in Sin City, once again I've managed to arrive home with my shirt on, barely! As usual I made many, many poor decision during my 3 day gambling spree. Specifically playing Texas Hold'em Bonus (a fairly new game to the casino floors) upon my arrival this past Sunday. Instead of sticking to my guns and not gambling the first night I arrived, I headed to the floor to "check it out." I stood around the table for a few minutes then shortly after a little birdie came by and whispered, "How hard can it be?" RIGHT! 4 hours later ... down $150+. I'm terribly great at starting off on the wrong foot in Vegas, I should be comfortable with it by now ... but it always feels the same, shitty! I dragged myself to the room and thought, "A good night's rest will bring me to a luckier day tomorrow!" .. or so I thought. Well, I didn't lose on day two so I guess luck was with me ... but I definitely didn't win. Instead, I spent $18 on two drinks ... red bull vodka and a Corona ... yup, $18!!! How about a Bud Light and Corona ... $16!! I couldn't believe it ... the drink prices were pushing me back to the casino ... ain't that just wrong! I couldn't even get trashed without putting my shoes on the table.

For the remaining 48 hours, I spent 75% of my time at 2-4 limit hold'em at Imperial ... great time. I spent so much damm time at the tables that I became quite freindly with the morning, swing and night shift dealers. Sadly, this was the highlight of my trip. Raking in the occassional pot, losing it back slowly and cycling again and again ... to ultimately leave at even.

My last and final move was to place at the Sahara No Limit Hold'Em tourny. Typically, 1st goes home with $1,500+ from a $40 buy in. Not bad for 4 hours of work. Vince and I entered at 11 pm last evening. Unfortunately, Vince got the boot at level 3, just before the 1st break. I played ultra conservative and didn't make too many big moves. But when I did, I somehow caught waves of luck. I reached the 9th level with just under 10k in chips. I went all in with K-Q off suit and get called with A-Q off suit. Needless to say, the Ace played and I went home at 17th position ... 7 spots out from the payout structure. It was disappointing to lose but I know that I was just as good as the rest of the remaining 16 and I didn't get out played. With only a few hours till I had to head out to the airport, I began planning my next visit. It's been twice this year that I've been to LV and both times I've been unsuccessful in winning ... anything. So third time is a charm ... or is it fourth ... or fifth! Or I might just have to move there!!!

Abstract Tree

Looking back on the event this morning, I began to wonder how many different mathematical symbols can be created from branches/twigs falling to the ground. Given an average size tree, will all math sybmols be created? Given all trees in the world, ...?

Coincidence or Pi

This morning, at one of the corners of the engineering center courtyard, I had my usual cup of coffee and cigarette before my number theory class. As I refreshed my body with liquid caffeine, my brain began to reach a normal processing speed. Looking around the courtyard, I became mesmerized by the snow fall ... fairy tale like. Thoughtless, I looked towards my feet and found something in the snow, an oddity. What I found was the mathematical symbol Pi written in the snow. At first I thought, "What a geek thing to do!" Then I realized that it was not written by any "geekie" engineering/math student but from what I guessed to be twigs that belonged to the branches above me. From a quick scan of the area, my conclusion seemed the most obvious .. that falling twigs fell to create the image. The closest any footprints were to the symbol were mine; and I was at least 5' away. I was so amazed at how the symbol was so prefectly embedded in the snow and simply created by nature. Then I began to think, "What if I decided to have my coffee elsewhere? Would anyone else be a witness to the suspicious character?" Coincidence or not?! Immediately after, I realized that I was late for class .. doh. "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does the tree make a sound?" "If a tree falls on your head and you're deaf, do you hear it?"

A Green Day

Walking through campus, I noticed many students wearing green. "Was it an incredible coincidence?" I thought to myself. Then I overheard a student say, "I didn't realize it was St. Patrick's Day till I heard it on the radio this morning." I smart am not! He-LLO ... the connection should of been much quicker but my brain has been consumed over the past 24+ hours with intergrals, contours, parametrization, logarithms, exponential functions .. all of complex variables ... all of which I have yet to determine will be useful in my next career. Green does not equal St. Patty's Day ... at least not this morning.

In lieu of the Irish holiday, I provide this excerpt from The History Channel ...

"Who Was St. Patrick?"
"St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity's most widely known figures. But for all his celebrity, his life remains somewhat of a mystery. Many of the stories traditionally associated with St. Patrick, including the famous account of his banishing all the snakes from Ireland, are false, the products of hundreds of years of exaggerated storytelling."

".. the product of hundreds of years of exaggerated storytelling." = stories by drunk folk

Happy St. Patty's Day ... Cheers!!!

"You've Gotta See This"

We've all recieved those email forwards with the subject line, "You've gotta see this." And if and when you open it, you'll find a link to an outrageous video of someone doing something stupid and hilariously funny. The catch is at the bottom where it stipulates that you must forward the link to 77 people or you'll have bad luck for the next 77 years. Guess I'm doomed! Bravo sums it all up with their newest series, "Outrageous and Contagious Viral Video." Episode 1 runs about 14 minutes ... don't be bored during lunch ... get your giggle on!

My top 3 ...

1. Not Dim Mak
2. Real Beer
3. Pres. Bush is smart!
   

Micro Machines

How small is the smallest car? According to popsci, approximately four billionth of a meter wide. Although I find chemistry unentertaining, kudos to those chemists that come up with those pretty sharp ideas. One trillion trillion nanoscopic cars ... come on!!!

AC

A Happy Birthday shout out to AC!!! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Correction

iTunes was not the cause of the computer failure. User error of course!!!

Fix It

Some of us know how much it sucks not to have a working computer ... how will you be able to get your blog on ... I mean really! The rest of us that perform weekly maintenance, updates, scans, etc., infrequently worry about computers crashing, not starting, etc etc. Why is that? I'm not going to answer the question ... it's pretty obvious. And if its not obvious ... don't change the oil in your car ... ever ... and see where that takes you. Side note ... Dema, I have no idea how you've gone this far without changing your oil ... unless you've found some mutant oil that never decomposes.

Two of my friends have computer issues. One of them has issues because it was never maintained ... see rule #1. The other issue is due to the installation of iTunes ... wah wah waaahhhh! I'm a huge fan of the iPod .. I think its a great toy. However, iTunes can kiss my deuce! Apparently during the installation, iTunes wrote over arbitrary system files required for Windows startup ... how nice of them to help. The machine won't startup properly ... actually hardly at all ... and the user can't upload music to the newly purchased iPod ... thank you, come again! Don't get me wrong ... if you have a good machine that can handle the app, iTunes runs nicely. But otherwise .. for those P2 and P3 folks ... leave it alone. You might as well try installing AutoCAD 2005 on a Commodore 64 ... maybe it'll work. So, tonight will be a fun filled evening of rebuilding computers, taco bell and Shanghai Noon on TBS ... in lieu of the contraversial Brokeback picture show. I don't see the connection ... must be Brokeback humor!

Deucin It

A few months back Brown posted an entry regarding the term, "Droppin a deuce!" Today, I retrieve the notion of droppin a deuce as today a fellow student abruptly entered our classroom and shouted out, "How much time till class starts? I need to DROP A DEUCE!" Immediately, I bursted out into laughter. Surrounding students stared at me as if I've never heard the term before. Oh ... but I have ... and used it on many, many occassions. It's been a while since I heard the term in such a fairly sized public audience. Hats off to that kid!

During my daily observations of us humans, I've noticed that a majority of the mid-30's and younger generations use the term frequently or have used the term at least once in their lives, while others use the more politically correct approach by saying, "I need to use the restroom." Either way, the announcement is made and your body is about to release some stank. There's no denial in it ... we all know it ... the idea of deucin' is gross. But it's undoubtably part of nature and there's no getting around it ... deuce away ... and let there be no shame in your game. So I say to those who take the politically correct route, take a risk the next time you wish to announce your defecation and say, "Damm, I gotta drop a deuce! Anyone hungry for corn??"

Predecessor of T1-8

Sherpa is very strong. Sherpa is aware of its surroundings. Sherpa has eyes! Sherpa has four legs. Sherpa can climb up rough terrain. But Sherpa can't shoot ... yet!
Sherpa is the newly developed Army robot that can carry equipment and gear for fellow soldiers ... lazy bastards. I have never been to war ... nor do I plan to join any military organization ... but if I were a soldier, personally, I would want to carry my own gear. I wouldn't want to be caught in a fight, when Sherpa suddenly short circuits and goes off looking to make baby Sherpas. Not cool!

"For now, the robot is remote-controlled, but future versions will come unleashed, able to make intelligent decisions about their course without guidance from humans. The more powerful, autonomous BigDog will be ready for battle within the next eight years."
- Preston Lerner

Does this sound like a good idea?? Do we really need unguided robots in a war situation?? The matrix is much closer than it seems.

Not Much Chow Fun

I would bet my bottom dollar that most of you don't care much about Topology. And if so, the following does not require your attention.










A topological space is a set X together with a collection T of subsets of X satisfying the following:

1. The empty set and X are in T.
2. The union of any collection of sets in T is also in T.
3. The intersection of any pair of sets in T is also in T.

The collection T is a topology on X. The sets in T are the open sets and their compliments in X are the closed sets. And then! NO MORE AND THEN!!!

Lunch Time Snacks

Attending class is important ... but so is web surfing ...

1. MC Hammer's Blog
2. X-Men III Hype
3. What a surprise .. Galaxies collide!
4. Chappelle's Block Party Soundtrack stream.

Tarter sauce ... tarter sauce!

Top 126 ... Says Who!

Distracted as usual, I stumbled upon the ordo ludus college ranking where I found CU ranked 100 amongst the top 126 schools across the US. Not bad for a school that's received much negative publicity over the past 2 years. Other schools that neighbor the 100 benchmark ... FSU @ 90, Purdu @ 94, Tufts @ 95, BC @ 97, NYU @ 101, Miami @ 105, BU @ 110. SUNY, Stony Brook must have been 127!!!

Distracted

Just the other day I received some old hmwk assignments from my professor. When I turned it in, the paper was yellow aside from a few pencil marks from my work. When I got it back ... it was bloodly red. At first glance, I thought she may of had a nose bleed while grading. It was straight up RED ink. Clearly at the top read, "Come see me!" Not a good sign! Obviously I've got some work to do ... I'll probably start by going to class.
LET VAN STAY! LET VAN STAY!

Deviant Evolution

Lately, Deviant Art has been my home away from home (virtually of course) ... I can't get enough. The talent that you can find on the site is remarkable (to say the least). I'm pretty sure that my artistic ability doesn't size up to most artists on DA ... but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. Apparently, I just don't have enough to do! Hopefully, I'll have my gallery up shortly ... link to follow.

900 Seconds Later

I had a mid-term in number theory this morning at 9 am. I got up a few minutes earlier than usual planning to look through some notes before the exam started. After dragging myself to the bathroom, changing, driving to school and searching for parking .. I ended up with only a few spare minutes to stop at CS and to find a seat in the room. As soon as I sat down, the exam started. I took my time, went through the problems at a steady pace ... 15 minutes later, I was done ... and I even checked over my answers. I looked up and around to find the entire class (49 other students) continuing to work diligently on the exam. I looked over at nearby students to find out if I somehow received a different exam. Nope ... they're all the same! I rechecked and rechecked ... everything looked in order. I turned it in and received a strange look from the professor. I felt just as strange as the impression on his face. Hope he doesn't think I'm a genius ... that could be a big let down for a math professor ... thinking that he finally found a prodigy in one of his classes. "Sorry, I'm not. I'm just another guy!" "No, Neo. That's not true. It can't be true." "!"