Air Conditioning

I have a confession to make: I hate air conditioning. It's not that I don't understand why other people like it. But it has never once helped me out. More often, I find myself wondering how to deal with the temperature difference. I spend way too much time trying to figure out if I want to freeze or bake. The would you rather die in fire or ice question becomes more and more relevant.

For some background, I'm from upstate NY. Upstate is not exactly AC weather. In my town, the average high temperature in July is 81, and it drops to a comfortable (if you're not me) 57 at night. I love 75 and above, but often shiver below that. Right now, the AC is on, I'm in my room with the window open and I have my sweatshirt and sweatpants on. It is 88 degrees out according to my computer, but I'm freezing in here.

Hence the AC rant. But seriously, I don't like the severe temperature differences. Sure, it feels nice to go to 65 after being out in 90... but only for a few minutes. Then the chill begins to set in.

Living where I do, I'm sure that other people actually need AC so that they don't overheat. But then I've never lived anywhere like that. I'm hoping I will make my peace with AC out in Davis next year, but then, who knows?

Ah... the AC just turned off. Excellent! Now maybe I can focus on writing my response paper!

The Hazards of Love

During college, my musical interests have shifted quite a bit. My favorite album my senior year of high school was American Idiot. Of course, that's just an example. But then, the real constant loves have been R.E.M., Eisley, and Dido. Recently, I feel like I've found a new niche in folk rock, especially new stuff. Which is why The Decemberists have really got my attention right now.

They were just on the front cover of Paste Magazine, the only nonacademic magazine I currently subscribe to. As a result, I just had to listen to the album again from the beginning. I'm shocked to hear that The Rake is probably going to be the single that will be on the radio! I guess maybe it is a bit more radio ready than the other songs... but it's their most violent song ever, for certain. Very creepy. I don't think it will do that well. But then, this is not really much of a singlezy album. There's a story. Whenever one of the songs come up on random, I always want the context. Unlike American Idiot, the songs don't do too well when they aren't in order. But this album is way better than American Idiot ever was.

Wow... I just compared American Idiot and the Hazards of Love... what am I thinking?

Anyway, the Decemberists will be near Phili this summer at some point. I'm trying to decide whether to go. Bryan wants to go with me. It's not that I don't want to go (I really really want to see them do the whole album live), but that I am not sure when I am going to California to look for apartments and my brother and I will be going to Darien Lake at some point to ride the rides and see a concert (Coldplay with the incredible Pete Yorn maybe?) Lately, I've gone to quite a few concerts, more this year than in my whole life up to then, and I really really love them. Well, if I love the band...

In the last year, I've seen R.E.M., Colbie Calliat, Blue Oyster Cult, Hootie and the Blowfish, the Indigo Girls, and... less exciting... Tower of Power and some really famous jazz musician and his band. I saw those last two in Japan with Bryan's family. Not really my kind of music.

So, I'm really tempted to see some more stuff. But there's only so much time.

Bands I would love to see:
The Weepies
Pete Yorn
Coldplay
The Decemberists
Sixpence None the Richer (They're back!!!)
Eisley
Tristan Prettyman
Evanescence
John Mayer
KT Tunstall
Fleetwood Mac (Or at least Stevie Nicks... Hey, I can dream)

Okay... I'm finally going to really do this... I hope

For a long time, I have wanted to blog. And the fact that I haven't isn't really because I haven't tried. Somewhere out there is a dead Xanga account, and I seem to remember a dead Livejournal account too. (And of course, Blogger's spell check recognized Blogger, but not Xanga or Livejournal and, surprisingly, not Blogger's, go figure.) But back when I used those two services, I was still a total forum geek and a moderator at an anime forum that I will not name in case people try to actually find me. Suffice it to say it is still very very popular. That took up most of my internet life from ages 11-19. My internet dynamic has changed, as has the websites I watch.

I used to watch that forum and my e-mail. I don't particularly remember what my startup routine was. But now, I go straight for the webcomics after I check my e-mail. My favorites are xkcd, Questionable Content, and Nemu*Nemu. I also read Nowhere University and Twisted Pencil. I've been reading the former for years (since my forum days!) and I started reading Twisted Pencil after meeting the author for the n-th time at a grad school visit.

So why do I think blogging might work out for me this time? Well, I'm moving. Seriously moving. To California. Next year, I'm entering the Grad Group in Applied Math at UC Davis. I hope that maybe I can communicate with my friends this way, since I won't see them much. Also, it would be nice to be able to bounce some of my ideas off of some more people on the net.

So, me in a nutshell. After several years of middle and high school, I realized that what I was good at was... school. Well, maybe a few more things than that. But careerwise I did not know what to do. I loved music, acting, playing tennis, Karate, writing, and I read so many books that, now, it's impossible for me to believe how much time I had to do it. All of that was in my spare time (which no longer truly exists). My favorite subjects, until 12th grade, were Physics, Chemistry, Math, English, and History. 12th grade English destroyed that interest since we read really horrible books (most because they were boring, but some because they were actively "anti-intelligence") and had to analyse them in a way our teacher agreed with. She taught her own graduate thesis. It was horrible.

I loved History still, but I wanted to go into science. The first thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was Sherlock Holmes, because of The Great Mouse Detective, which was my favorite movie for years. But I have at various times wanted to be a Meteorologist, an Astrophysicist, an Astronomer, a Detective, Benjamin Franklin, a Writer, a Dancer, a Singer, an Actor, a Microbiologist, an Astronaut, an Engineer, and a Chemist. I think Ben Franklin is the most revealing of these... it means I just wanted to do everything!

In high school, I decided I liked science because I liked math, instead of the other way around, and decided to become an Applied Mathematician. As someone who loves to write (and whose interests have recently been somewhat vindicated), I decided I didn't need a degree in English or Creative Writing to persue it. But I did need a degree in Math to be a Mathematician. So... here's where I am now.

This summer, I will not have a steady job. This is sort of deliberate. Over the last few years, I have done summer research, taken classes, and just generally worked on math. I decided I needed a summer off. I will be working on a directed reading of a book on Partial Differential Equations this summer. I will also be tutoring, teaching a review class, and, hopefully, writing. Maybe this summer I can relax and do some of the things I haven't done in a long time.

Like blogging.