Yes. Yes. Yes.

Two things.  First of all, I have finished Season 5 of Doctor Who and have to admit something.  I like Matt Smith's doctor more than David Tennant's.  It has taken me a lot of time to actually come out with that statement, but its completely true.  And I am extremely excited about Season 6.  The Doctor in a Stetson?  Yes.  Because "Stetsons are cool".

Second, Sarah and I watched Tron: Legacy tonight.  My verdict?  This is the cyberpunk movie I have been waiting for the last couple of years.  I was giddy as a schoolgirl once I left.  Sure, the plot was a bit messy and over the top.  But seriously, what good cyberpunk isn't?  Besides, the movie was visually gorgeous, had an amazing soundtrack (thank you Daft Punk), and had some interesting big picture questions in the end.  Furthermore, the universe was engrossing enough that you were able to accept the blatant symbolism and imagery.  And it did not try to explain itself the entire time (I am looking at you Inception).  Fun times all around.

I believe this is the first time I have cooked at home in about a month.

I know. I've been busy.

A few of you, the world of cyber cronies, have been asking why I haven't posted in so long. Well, honestly, I've been pretty busy. Busy with what, you ask? Busy with this:

Stickers on Apples

Celiacs - always make sure to wash your apples after you take off the sticker and cut off the skin underneath the sticker. The adhesive on that sticker may contain gluten. I have been meaning to post this for months now but just now remembered to do so. This also applies to other produce.

I have to say...

My new car is pretty awesome.

In other news, I am now poor (Okay not really, but poorer anyway).

Finally, I would like to mention that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, my alma mater, was selected as one of the 16 colleges or universities where it is considered significantly more difficult to get an A than your typical campus. On the one hand, I am proud to be an alum there. On the other, I am sitting here thinking: so why did I put myself through that? Either way, I think my college experience did me well, Troylets and all.

Longer post to come tonight.

Someone has a new car.

Of all things

So after I picked up an old visiting friend from the airport last night, we decided to head over to Guero's for some quick eats.  Well, it turns out we were given the table behind Weird Al who is performing in Austin tonight.  Who would have thought.  Unfortunately, neither my friend nor I had a camera, so we had to just settle for a mental image of Weird Al chomping down on tacos.

Sherlock

If you haven't seen it yet, make sure to do so in the very near future. This modern take on a classic series is quite brilliant. Review to come shortly.

An exciting week ahead!

I am very excited about this week.

First and foremost, my lovely fiancee is coming to town to visit!

Second of all, we are going to Fun Fun Fun Fest this upcoming weekend!

Third of all, one of my roommates and teammates from college is visiting this week!

Finally, it looks like I will be submitting my proposal abstract this week.

Other awesome things of note:

First, I now own a sweet top hat.

Second, the squirrels at William and Mary post amusing things on Facebook and, according to Miss Sarah Stanford, are getting quite fat and fluffy this time of year.

And finally, I have fallen back in love with chamomile tea.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween y'all! I hope this festive weekend has treated you well. This weekend has been quite an adventure for me. On Friday night, I went with my roommate to a law school party hosted at a local Austin bar. It was, to put it simply, fairly hilarious and a bit of a different crowd than I am used to as a PhD student. I believe the terminology I settled on was "all-out but well-composed"? Either way, there were some pretty hilarious costumes there. One guy was dressed as a tree, with 15 foot branches hanging off of him. He nearly took out the lights at the bar several times. For those who are curious, I went as the Tenth Doctor (yes, I am a giant nerd and I may have a slight man-crush on David Tennant) and my roommate went as Audrey Hepburn.

Last night, I held a small Halloween party at my apartment. I decided to have a bit more fun with my costume for this party, and I went to Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds to find the finishing touches. The result?

That's right. I was Dr. John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes mythology. Of course, this begs the question: where the heck was Sherlock Holmes? Well, so the story goes, Dr. Watson had just recently become engaged to a certain Mary Morstan and Sherlock was not particularly happy about it. Hence, Sherlock elected not to attend the evening party. The truth of the matter? I was originally going to go as Mr. Holmes but decided I desperately needed to wear a fake mustache.

The party turned out to be quite a lot of fun. It was a bit of a young professionals/graduate students mixer, with the usual consequences. There was plenty of food and drink, and I got to make quesedillas. Overly filled gluten-free quesedillas. Yes, they were delicious. Yes, I just might make some more tonight. So, without further delay, here is the simple (and rather non-specific) recipe.

John's Simple Quesedillas

Ingredients:

4 cups shredded Monterey Jack/Cheddar/Asadero cheese mix
12-ounces diced green chiles
1/2 cup medium chunky salsa (I use Pace)
1/4 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon chopped Cilantro leaves
Vegetable oil
16-20 corn tortillas
Salsa, guacamole, and sour cream for garnish

Steps:

1. In a large bowl, mix the cheese mix, chiles, salsa, oregano, cumin, and Cilantro leaves. Make sure to mix well.
2. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add a tortilla and spread some of the mixture even over the tortilla. Add as much of the mixture or as little as you want. I am not going to even pretend there is a correct amount. Top with a second tortilla, and cook until the cheese is melted. Flip the tortilla and cook the other side. Repeat to cook the remaining quesedillas (you will probably end up with 8-10 quesedillas, depending on how much mixture you use on each). If desired, cut each quesedilla into four, and garnish with salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.

The date is set.

January 18th. 10 AM. Judgment day.

The judges?

Professors Thomas J.R. Hughes (my advisor), Ivo Babuŝka, Leszek Demkowicz, Robert Moser, Omar Ghattas, and Yuri Bazilevs.

And whose fate, do you ask, are they judging?

Mine.

That's right. I have a date and time set for my PhD proposal. Cross your fingers and say a little prayer for me. If you are interested in what I will be proposing, a draft of my abstract is available here.

In other research news, I have just submitted to a journal a paper that I have been working with my advisor and Professors Franco Brezzi and Donatella Marini from Pavia, Italy.

Be forewarned - I am about to get technical.

The paper proposes a new theory for the modeling of plates and a simple yet effective plate finite element employing one-point quadrature. We obtained convergence results without adhering to any ad hoc stabilization tricks, and we believe these are the first such results for a one-point quadrature plate element. Needless to say, we are all quite excited about it.

And yet I am excited about this paper for an entirely different reason. Why, do you ask? Because I am now co-authors with both Babuŝka and Brezzi of the famous Babuŝka-Brezzi condition, a key result in numerical analysis of partial differential equations. I feel like I am now allowed to honarably retire (at least from the field of finite element analysis).

Yes, I am a giant nerd.

They just keep getting faster and faster.

No, I am actually not going to talk about running this time. Sorry for the misleading title.

In case you haven't heard, China's Tianhe-1A is now the fastest supercomputer ever built. It can deliver approximately 2.5 petaflops. Yes, you read that right. Two and a half petaflops. Hot damn. And what would one do with such computing power, might you ask? I don't know, how about simulate the Earth at speeds about seventy times faster than the Earth Simulator? I know some guys down here in Texas that would love to abuse appreciate that kind of computing power. They were, after all, just featured on the cover of Science.



And for those of you who care, Tianhe means "Milky Way". Looking at a list of galaxy names, I am not sure if a trend of naming supercomputers after galaxies is the best idea. Otherwise, I might soon be running code on Small Magellanic Cloud. Actually, on second thought, I think I will be naming my next machine just that.

Food, I have not been ignoring you.

I just realized I had not talked about food for a while on this blog. The truth is I have not been making the most elaborate of meals this week. I have been super swamped with work and other responsibilities, so most of my meals (including dinner) have been of the simple breakfast and lunch variety.

However, even a simple "lunch for dinner" meal can be tasty. Take my (somewhat large) dinner last night for example.


Two HTBLT (ham, turkey, bacon, lettuce, and tomato) sandwiches served with mayo and Udi's gluten-free white rice bread, Mission tortilla rounds* with guacamole, spinach salad with 365 brand basil pesto and diced feta, and milk. Simple, yet still classy as I served myself milk in a wine glass.

*I realize that Mission products are made in plants that also process wheat tortillas, but I honestly have never had an issue with Mission chips.

Now guacamole has become one of my favorite food items since I moved to Texas. I simply cannot get enough of it. And naturally, its tastier when its fresh, so I encourage making it yourself rather than buying some packaged mix.

John's Guacamole Recipe


Ingredients:

2 ripe (standard size) avocados
1/4 to 1/2 red onion, chopped
1 serrano pepper, minced (and seeded if desired)
3 tablespoons cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1 garlic cloved, minced
1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
A dash of pepper
1/2 ripe tomato, seeds and pulp removed, chopped

Steps:

1. Cut the avocados in half, spoon out the avocados into a mixing bowl (or if you're lazy like me, into a Tupperware container), and remove the seeds. Mash the avocados using a potato masher.
2. Add the onion, cilantro, lemon juice, salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic. Mash a bit more. Finally, add the serrano pepper. If you want to minimize the kick, make sure the pepper has been seeded. Enjoy some more mashing.
3. Once you are ready to serve, add the tomatoes and stir.

Voilà. Enjoy the creamy goodness.

Last night, I went to my friend Sarah's dinner party, and I discovered my good friend Chris's wife Jenn had made gluten-free cupcakes for me! I instantly became the happiest dude in the world. They were delicious and Jenn even decorated them as little pumpkins. I am convinced I have the most awesome friends in the world.




Finally, I should mention I just found photographs of another gluten-free meal I made myself last weekend. I grilled myself a medium-rare coffee-encrusted steak using some old espresso grounds to make the rub. Of course, I forgot exactly how I made the rub. Once I remember, I will be sure to post it.

So where are applied mathematicians?

Andrew Howard, feel free to make the standard required comments regarding Classics.

Apparently, a few select people DO care about the Oxford comma.

The results of our study are in. We have collected a whole slew of statistics from you, the community at large, regarding your thoughts on the Oxford comma. To make things lively and graphical, I have decided to reveal the data in the form of pie charts in addition to percentage statistics.

Let us recall the original question. Oxford comma: Yay or nay? Overall, 73% of our audience of over 200 voters responded yay, and 27% responded nay. Graphically:


Honestly, this roughly lined up with similar polls we had seen online. To make things interesting, we decided to also examine demographic statistics such as gender and college major/area of study. I should note that many of the people I polled were working professionals who worked in fields entirely unrelated to their college major. I did not poll anyone who did not have at least some college experience. This was not on purpose - I just polled whoever was convenient, and I happen to work at a university. The statistics with regards to gender were fairly boring - for both males and females, the graph above was essentially replicated. The statistics with regard to area of study were a bit more interesting. Before proceeding, I should further note that I also "polled" some celebrities, politicians, and academics by checking out their webpages to add some fun and variety to this poll. Now, without further ado, here are the charts and statistics.

Science and Technology

Yay: 84%, Nay: 16%

Pure Mathematics

Yay: 71%, Nay: 29%

Law and Policy

Yay: 100%, Nay: 0%

Business

Yay: 92%, Nay: 8%

Liberal Arts

Yay: 63%, Nay: 37%

Education

Yay: 100%, Nay: 0%

Journalism

Yay: 5%, Nay: 95%

A few remarks to finish off this post:

• My fiancee Sarah and I predicted a great number of these statistics ahead of time. One set of statistics we did not predict, however, was the one associated with liberal arts. We honestly figured a lot more people trained in the liberal arts would be against the Oxford comma as was the case for journalists. However, I suppose the result is not entirely unexpected as the Chicago Manual of Style, which advocates the Oxford comma, is the grammar bible of choice for many liberal artists.
  
• I polled a lot of people with a background in law. They all, to a t, replied yay. I later learned the Aspen Handbook for Legal Writers insists that lawyers use the Oxford comma. As an aside, I should note the improper use (or absence) of a comma can lead to a world of hurt in the courtroom, as illustrated by this court case.
  
• Facebook does not use the Oxford comma. Neither does any major news publication or magazine.
  
• We originally decided to separate pure mathematics from science/technology early into our poll. A lot of students I knew studying pure mathematics were against the Oxford comma, illustrating a clear break in trend from the other sciences. However, I then began to start examining the writing habits of prominent mathematicians in the field and found a different set of preferences. And for the record, Terry Tao seems to prefer the Oxford comma.
  
• I use the Oxford comma. Sarah often does not. We somehow manage.
  
• I only included American citizens in this poll. If I was to include visiting Europeans I know, for example, the outcome of the poll would have been a bit different. Notably, my Italian collaborators rarely use the Oxford comma (even in their journal publications written in English) as it is not used in their native language.
  

The Ritual of Breakfast

For my entire life, I have pretty much eaten the same basic variation of breakfast every morning. It goes something like this:

Orange Juice and Milk
Cold Cereal (Cheerios before Celiac, Rice Chex after - no exceptions) without Milk or Oatmeal
Vanilla Yogurt or Eggs
Apples with Cheese or Grapes
Single Shot of Espresso

Sometimes, I get creative and fancy with the eggs, but that's honestly it. Other meals don't follow such a ritualistic pattern, but breakfast always does. Does anyone else have such a strict breakfast ritual?

A Short Tribute

"Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line."

— Benoît Mandelbrot, in his introduction to The Fractal Geometry of Nature


Once again, I have gotten behind in my blogging. I wish I could say it was solely due to a lack of time, but honestly, allergies have gotten in the way. I find it to be quite difficult to write when the world around you is spinning and your head is pounding.

Moving on, I just wanted to do a short tribute to Benoît Mandelbrot, a famous mathematician who passed away this last week. Mandelbrot was responsible for a slew of results in a wide range of fields from mathematical physics to mathematical finance, but he was most famous for his work on fractal geometry. Indeed, Mandelbrot was the one to first coin the term "fractal", and the Mandelbrot set was named after him.


The dominant property of fractals is recursive self-similarity. For example, if you have an image of a fractal shape and you then zoom in on a portion of that image, the original and zoomed-in images will have very similar properties (at least statistically). If you keep zooming-in, you will keep experiencing similar phenomena - in this sense, fractals have a fine structure at arbitrarily small scales. Many objects in nature exhibit fractal characteristics, such as clouds, mountain ranges, tree branches, and snowflakes, but of course these objects only exhibit such characteristics to a certain measurable, not arbitrary, level.


Fractal geometry was one of the objects that originally drew me into the field of mathematics. As a freshman in college studying Aerospace Engineering, I remember frequently going to the office of my instructor for Differential Equations and seeing a fractal image on his door. This image was generated using strange attractors, and it inspired me to start researching chaos theory and dynamical systems.


My voyage through the mathematics world would eventually wind itself into the realms of partial differential equations, numerical analysis, and fluid dynamics, and my current research is dedicated to the numerical study of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. And with regards to that, Mandelbrot conjectures in his treatise The Fractal Geometry of Nature: "Furthermore, I contend that the singularities of the solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations can only be fractals." When studying the fractal characteristics of turbulence and energy spectra, the above statement makes increasingly more sense. And so it seems I may be back again to the land of fractals, a land that Mandelbrot brought to our attention and wonderfully explored for us. So thank you, Professor Mandelbrot.

A couple of other comments regarding the world of mathematics:

• In a post on his blog last night, Terry Tao remarked: "And if the proof of (say) a lemma is analogous to a short story, then the statement of that lemma can be viewed as analogous to the moral of that story." I doubt Tao intended it, but I found the statement to be a fun analogy illustrating the literary merits of mathematical proof.
  
  
• The blog Intersections - Poetry with Mathematics had an entry last week detailing three poems about the three classes of triangle. I found the poems, originally written in French, to be fun and clever.
  

I guess it's time for new racing spikes.

Back in Austin

After a long day of flights and layovers, I have finally made it back to Austin. I already miss Williamsburg and Sarah quite a bit, but I do appreciate being back. I do, after all, have a dissertation to finish.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Sarah and I spent the day yesterday in Richmond. While Sarah was hitting up the archives at the Library of Virginia for her Master's research, I got to see a bit of downtown. In particular, I was able to explore Shockoe Slip for a coffee shop (and I eventually stumbled on Shockoe Espresso). I found the area to be quite nice (and a bit overrun by tattooed hipsters). I even found a Segway store right in the heart of Shockoe Slip. Fun times.

Anyways, when Sarah was done at the archives, we decided to hit up a local eatery for some good eats. Inspired by a local magazine article, we settled on checking out Garnett's Cafe in the Fan District. Kendra Feather, the owner of Garnett's, follows a gluten-free diet and offers a large number of gluten-free options at the eatery. For the sandwiches, Garnett's offers Sami's Bakery gluten-free bread from Tampa Bay. I ordered the BLT with the gluten-free bread, and it was absolutely delicious. The flax and millet bread the sandwich was served on was fantastic and perfectly toasted. The mayonnaise was delicious, the bacon crisp, and the tomatoes optimally juicy. The sandwich even came with home-cooked French potato salad and pickles. Overall, I was very happy with our lunch choice. Bonus points: Elliott Smith played on the sound system during our meal. Perfection achieved.

When I got back to my apartment in Austin, I noticed that my pantry wasn't quite empty. I still had about one cup left of Arborio rice. Of course, that meant risotto again. This time around, I went for a much simpler recipe, being exhausted from the long trip home. I call this one Onion and Basil Risotto. If you wish, you can get creative with this recipe by adding cheese, extra spices, etc. However, the base dish is still delicious and fairly healthy as well. I recommend serving it as a first course, a la Italian style.

Onion and Basil Risotto


Ingredients:

1 cup of arborio rice
4 1/2 cups of chicken broth
10 fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of chopped red onions
Black pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Combine the broth and basil leaves in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat to low and cook the basil broth for 10 minutes. Remove the basil leaves and continue to simmer the broth.
2. Heat a saucepan over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add the olive oil and onions and stir-fry for 2 minutes until the onions are golden. Add the rice and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until the rice is starting to toast.
3. Add a ladleful of the broth to the rice and stir. Continue stirring gently until the water of the broth has evaporated, which should take 1-2 minutes. Repeat adding a ladleful of broth, allowing the broth to be absorbed before adding the next ladleful. Make sure to continuously stir the risotto. When the last of the broth has been added (this should be around 17-18 minutes or so from the time the cooking started), the risotto should have an al dente texture. Season the risotto to taste with the black pepper and serve immediately.

The recipe makes 4-6 servings.

Espresso in a Paper Cup

Okay, time for a mini rant. My vacation in Virginia has been fantastic in just about every way except one minor detail - I still have not found a coffee shop that can pull off that near perfect shot. In Williamsburg, Sarah and I have been visiting Aroma's, a busy little coffee shop right in the heart of the colonial district. It's a fun, local sort of place. During my first visit, the owner went out of her way to make me comfortable, mentioning the gluten-free cookies her daughter had made for the shop. Awesome in every way. However, I have had mixed experiences with the espresso shots I have been served there. My first one was fantastic. Perfectly extracted (crema and all) into a properly sized demitasse cup. However, my second shot was served in a paper cup, even though I had specifically said "For here." Is this just an artifact of Starbucks culture? The entire flavor of an espresso shot is ruined once it is transferred to such a vessel. Anyways, the rest of my espresso drinks at Aroma's have been, for the most part, quite passable, but they have always been served in gigantic mugs instead of a demitasse. As a side note, never never never mix orange juice and espresso, no matter how sick you might be getting. It is just a bad idea. That was my mistake.

Anyways, I figured the whole espresso in a mug thing might have been a consequence of how busy Aroma's can get. However, today, I experienced the same thing at Shockoe Espresso in Richmond. A shot of liquid into a giant mug. I should mention that the espresso was quite nice (although just a tad bit over-extracted), but why the mug? Why encourage a "crema vanishing act"? I think I have become too much of a snob for my own good. And if you know of a fantastic coffee shop in Virginia (and in particular in the Williamsburg area), please let me know.

Third Update: Williamsburg!

So, for my final blog post of my recent series of three, I get to tell you all, the collective blogosphere, that I have made it to Williamsburg, the town of my fiancee. This is honestly the first time I have visited Sarah since she left Austin. It has been almost two months, but after a couple of days together, it honestly felt like we were apart only a few days. Crazy how that works. Anyways, I figure I would tell you about a few of the things we have been up to here, with a focus on food. Exciting, eh?

One of the things Sarah and I have always enjoyed doing together is exploring trails. Walk 'em, run 'em, bike 'em, climb 'em. Well, we did not get too adventurous while here, but we did travel down the highway to York River State Park to get in a short hike this past Saturday. The park contains over 25 miles of trails for the casual hiker or mountain biker. Unfortunately, many of these trails also allow for horses and the waste that comes with it. Nonetheless, the trails really were nice and pretty and allowed a nice view of the York River. They seemed ideal for a morning jog (note for next time!).


On Sunday, Sarah and I went to the CIAO (Colonial Italian American Organization) Italian Festival to do some fun crafts browsing, music listening, and wine tasting. Sarah also went for the delicious but unfortunately gluten-filled food =P. Overall, the festival was a great deal at only twelve dollars a ticket. The festival version of wine tasting was quite fun (and a bit intoxicating) - instead of sampling just one winery, we ended up sampling eight. There were wines of all kinds for all kinds of people, from the super sweet to the super dry to the super fruity. Our favorite wine of the day was probably the Barboursville 2007 Carbernet Franc Reserve. It was bolder than many of the other dry wines at the festival without being overbearing which is, in my opinion, a great combination of properties to have. I should make a final note that the best part of the festival was the free wine glasses, as displayed below with a bottle of 2009 Placido Chianti (also a great deal at under $7!) and a Halloween-style tablecloth.


After returning from the Italian festival, we went to a little restaurant called Food for Thought for dinner. If you are Celiac and find yourself in Williamsburg in the future, make sure you go here. It has an absolutely wonderful gluten-free menu. And you must try the Down South, a combination of grits, sauteed shrimp, bell peppers, mushrooms, and pan gravy. Make sure to get the "extra spicy" version - it is not as spicy as it sounds, and the spice does not come in the way of taste.

To conclude this post, let me make a trip around the world from the American south to northern Italy. That's right, last night, Sarah and I made risotto, that creamy and rich Italian rice dish. Sarah and I first tried to make risotto this past summer with mixed success. The dish we created was delicious but a bit too crunchy - not quite the ideal al dente one would like. This time, the dish turned out perfect. The base recipe for the risotto dish comes from Gluten-Free Girl's blog, but we made a couple of changes. I detail the recipe below.

Rich and Creamy Bacon Spinach Risotto

Ingredients:

5 cups of chicken stock
1/4 cup of butter
1 large red onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
6 pieces of bacon, shredded
2 cups of arborio rice
large pinch of nutmeg
3 tomatoes off the vine, chopped
6 ounce of spinach
1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Steps:

1. Pour the stock into a large saucepan and slowly bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat until the stock is gently simmering.
2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in large skillet under medium heat and gently fry the onion, garlic, and bacon for 2-3 minutes until the onion has softened but not browned and the bacon is sealed. Stir in the rice and cook, stirring all the while, for 2 minutes until the rice is well cooked and starting to toast. This "toasting" stage is key to a classically made risotto.
3. Add a ladleful of the stock to the pan and cook gently until the stock is absorbed and stir continuously. Continue to add the stock in small quantities. I found I added stock every two minutes or so. When half of the stock has been used and the rice is creamy, season well and add the nutmeg and tomatoes.
4. Continue to add the stock until the risotto becomes thick but not sticky. This should be about 25-26 minutes from the time you started cooking.
5. Stir the spinach into the risotto for 2 minutes, then add the cheese at the last moment. Serve and eat immediately.

That's it. Make sure to use a large pan as to not make a mess, and do not overcook the risotto. The goal is al dente not mushy. I have included a few fun pictures of the cooking process below. Enjoy!

The Toasting of the Grains:



The Addition of Tomatoes:



The Addition of Spinach:



Dinner is Served:

Second Update: Shoes!

Last week was a wonderful week for a multitude of reasons. In this post, I go into reason #254: my new running shoes. This past spring, I began to try to abandon my ways of the past (heavy clonkers) for a brand new vision (training in flats). A crucial part of this transformation was a conversion to the Brooks Launch. From the moment I tried the shoes on, I was in love. They were lightweight at 9.9oz yet super springy. They forced me to run on my midfoot, making me feel light and fast. There was only one downside: the obnoxious and ugly color scheme.


Simply put, I was not a fan. But alas, things have changed! With a new school year came a new color scheme and with that a wrong was corrected, especially as I now have landed a pair of these beautiful shoes.


Black/Nightlife, you are alright with me. Especially when you are coupled with a sweet pair of Asics Hyperspeeds.

Finally! An Update of Sorts!

It has been a little while since I have updated. I originally wanted to get about one post in a day, but it has been almost a week since I last wrote a post. Hence, today I shall write three different posts. Excited? Well, you should be.

Topic number one: The elite running scene.

The particulars: Chicago.

Holy. Monkeys.

The last 10 minutes of the Chicago Marathon was a battle for the ages between Kebede and Wanjiru. Wanjiru was dropped no less than 3 times as he attempted to surge past Kebede for the lead. Then came the final attack: Wanjiru dropped the hammer with less than a kilometer to go, leaving Kebede in the dust. In the last 500m, Kebede gave up almost 20 seconds to Wanjiru! Yes, you read that correct. 20 seconds! Rumor says Wanjiru finished the last 800m in 2:04-2:05, and I can very much believe that, no matter how ridiculous it sounds. Check out the video of the end of the race at NBC Chicago.

Perhaps even more ridiculous is the fact that the finish of the Eindhoven Marathon in the Netherlands was even closer, finishing in a virtual photo finish.



Finally, I would like to mention Molly Huddle won the women's US Road 10K Championship today, and Jen Rhines finished second. Why am I so ecstatic about this? Both women grew up in upstate New York. Upstate pride, y'all. Upstate pride.

An Interesting Link

In light of the latest Tour de France doping scandal, Professor Richard Lipton has written an interesting blog entry on the topic of drug doping in mathematics and mind sports. Check it out. It's a fun read.

Oh, and here is a special statement for the kids:

Harbinger of Doom

You are the harbinger of doom. You excite me just to bring me down. You promise ecstasy yet deliver pain. Supposedly, McDonald's has dedicated fryers. Supposedly, I should not have this stabbing feeling in my side. Like knives. And swords. And other sharp objects. However, I now know the truth. McDonald's, our long-standing relationship is officially over.

At least I still have one more guilty pleasure in my life.


Crisp. Refreshing. Coca Cola.

And I swear I was not paid to say that.

Hello Sunset My Old Friend

I would say it is about time for a run.

Attack of the Grammarians

Inspired by Vampire Weekend, my fiancee and I have decided to take a poll. The question: what are your thoughts on the Oxford comma: yay, nay, or who honestly cares? Of course, it is almost impossible for me to not introduce bias into the poll with a list composing of three or more answers (call the neutrality police, he already used the comma!). Nevertheless, we have gotten a fair amount of interesting answers so far, and we are hoping to wrap up the poll soon. I am hoping to do an analysis of the data based on area of study/career, age, and gender. Stay tuned for the results!

On the topic of grammar, I thought of a fun grammatical conundrum while discussing the issue of the Oxford comma with a few of my fellow graduate students. Consider the following all-around terrible sentence:

My favorite three meals are bacon, eggs(,) and cheese, spaghetti, meatballs(,) and marinara, and steak and potatoes.

Regardless of whether one uses the Oxford comma or not, it is a downright terrible sentence. Of course, we all know the solution (okay, maybe its not entirely obvious or even universally supported): use the all-powerful and little-understood semi-colon. Then we have:

My favorite three meals are bacon, eggs(,) and cheese; spaghetti, meatballs(,) and marinara; and steak and potatoes.

Mathematically speaking, we have a list of sets. To separate the individual sets, we use a semi-colon. Now, what if we have a list of sets of sets? Consider the following awful, awful situation:

We decided to break the nine kids into one of three possible combinations of groups of three:

Andrew, Brian(,) and Freddy
Sam, Jim(,) and Sue
Steven, John(,) and Julia

Andrew(,) Freddy, and Sam
Jim, Sue(,) and Steven
Brian, John(,) and Julia

Andrew, Sam(,) and Steven
Brian, Jim(,) and John
Freddy, Sue(,) and Julia

How would we enumerate this list of lists into one sentence? Now, I know what you are thinking. Why the hell would we want to do that? That is terrible style! However, let's just consider it as a case that is allowable in the English language. In this sense, I am seeking universal consistency. Do we need a new symbol to be able to separate items which are lists of lists? Shall we return to Latin?


And what if we had a list of sets of sets of sets? Dear God, what have I done?

And so the mathematician continues to consider the worst case which never appears in practice. *Sigh*. If you were at all interested by this, check out the huge field of linguistics. And read up on Noam Chomsky. Well, his work on grammar anyway.

I wasn't expecting company this morning!

This has got to be the first Preying Mantis I have seen in Austin, and it is quite a doozie at that (size of my fist!).