Professional Ensemble

So here's how it works in the Caltech band: everyone takes turns on the high parts, so we can blow our brains out on Shostakovitch without worrying about painful, painful consequences twelve Sousa marches later. Or that's how it works in theory, and during most rehearsals. At the concert, of course, everyone just plays whatever part is in front of them, and no one admits that they're supposed to play the top part of the Sousa march.

My lip hurts.

On the other hand, the soloist brought in a contrabass saxophone. If your bandwidth is burning a hole in your pocket, it's worth taking a listen, while I head off to find a nice beer.

yami · 23:07 · 23 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Music

Coherence is for Chumps

  1. I have a theory, which I unfortunately must state in the jargon of linear algebra: La Marseillaise, Deutschland Uber Alles, and March of the Volunteers (the anthem of the People's Republic of China) span the space of all possible national anthems.
  2. I have been searching, off and on as my self-image wavers, for a low-cal, non-cigarette food substitute. I have a great deal of obsessive-compulsive energy invested in moving things from hand to mouth as I study, you see, but if you're not trying to quit smoking, you can't just start chewing on sticks. People look at you funny.
  3. You know it's going to be a long night when you start commenting your code as a dialogue between two guys called Ole and Sven:


    % Hey, Ole! Vat about dem slownesses? Ve need a slowness matrix, dont'cha know.
    % Vell, Sven, I've always wanted to use da magic() function for something, and da slowness model is arbitrary...

yami · 23:30 · 18 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Whimsy, Diary

Someone’s Dinner

Just as I am about to hit a bout of self-pity (conveniently overwhelming my physics set) someone comes along to remind me of the good things in life:

kumquats and rutabagas

Mmm, kumquats. Life is better with funny-named foods.

indeed

Indeed, indeed. Indeed.

??

Indeed, indeed. Indeed.

Jeg dr�mte stjerneklart om vinden ...

Virkelig? Så behøver du en rejse, eller måske du har nogen bitterhed til din job. Fortælle mig om din mor.

Parseval's realtion

Parseval's relation

Ah, I see. We'll switch to English, then; after all, I cannot practice psychoanalysis in a language I do not speak. Have you ever felt intimidated by the mathematical accomplishments of your mother's relative? What relation is Parseval to your mother, anyway, and has he ever made fun of you for stuttering?

ATOMS

That's hardly a sensible relation. You're clearly not taking this therapy seriously. I give up.

I need the info so I dont fail science.

No no: if I give you the info, you'll never construct it for yourself and it will remain forever meaningless. You should find yourself three test tubes, scissors, some cardboard, a goldfish and a ruler, and go from there.

do you want the beef or the fish?

The fish.

yami · 18:47 · 16 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Fan Mail

Committee Committee

I'm on a committee that makes more committees; Caltech's student government is brilliant like that. Over the past two nights, we've spent 10 hours interviewing students to fill up our 9 latest, greatest committee creations. If I hear one more person talking about how they wanted to give back to the community, and serving on some random committee seemed like a good way to do it, I'm going to break out in stripes.

It's interesting that people without an ax to grind tend not to be appointed to committees here; I haven't decided whether or not this is a good thing, and I've no oomph left to ruminate. Thank goodness the Dean hands out free homework extensions like candy if you're doing Important Committee Work.

Also, I need a machine that chews my cud for me, and spits out profoundly silly sound bytes.

yami · 12:04 · 15 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Local Politics, Diary

Rrrrr-awwwrrrerrr! says the leaf blower

Speaking of blogging about gardening... Mondays are landscape maintenance days in this little block of student housing, and today they brought out the leaf blower. A large he-boobied man had the blower backpack on, and every so often you could see him raise his black extendo-arm and rev the motor, blowing a quick riff into the sky. He blew bits of dust off the sidewalk and onto the lawn for a while; then he switched gears and blew bits of lawn onto the sidewalk. Tired after a couple hours of that, he blew some cigarette butts back into the lawn and left.

I am one step closer to becoming a crochety old lady who goes to city council meetings, to bang the podium with my umbrella and demand an insanely restrictive noise ordinance. Or else grabbing a handful of radioactive waste from the fridge and holding the whole block hostage until everyone agrees to let me use their lawns as my private organic spinach farm.

yami · 19:33 · 11 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: I Hate Everything

What I Love

Written on the chalkboard in the band break room, with large, awkward cursive in multi-colored chalk:

What I Love About Caltech?
I love the coloured chalks.
I also like the gardens.
And the weather.
There are people I like, and I like that they like me.
There are some students at Caltech that I would love, if they loved me back.
But they don't, so my favourite part are the coloured chalks.

yami · 15:22 · 9 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Whimsy

Mmmeat

I can't even remember the last time I've had meat, apart from last night. Quite clearly it's been long enough for several important meat-digesting strains of E. coli to have given up and left, seeking a better future in the L.A. water treatment facility. I hope they're having fun now, wherever they are; my intestines were totally lost without them.

It's one thing to be semi-mostly-vegetarian by choice and laziness, but when it's forced upon me by ravening hordes of insensate bacteria I get a little miffed. Next thing you know, I'll be lactose-intolerant and MSG will give me migraines, and from there, where does it end?

Also, fainting goats.

yami · 8:47 · 8 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Food, Diary

Slurry of Someone

ross and moots! ross and moots!

Er, yes, indeed. I'm afraid I don't watch whatever television show you're chanting at, even if television is suddenly much safer now that campaign ads are gone.

(psst! have they gone yet? it's dark in here.)

They're gone. It's safe. You can come out now. Except for the barrage of silly questions.

what is this thing for anyway?

I don't know, Silly Reader. It's probably either a car part, a fashionable organizing device, or a gift item from the clearance rack.

I am going to borrow your pencil...please?

No.

what about the limestone?

Sure, you can borrow my limestone any time you want. I have only modest rustic construction and acid waste treatment needs, so I don't use it much.

why are blessings always in disguise? if I were a blessing, I'd be naked!

If blessings came naked, we'd never have them in the winter, because they'd get cold and leave. If I were a blessing, I would probably want to bundle up in snow pants most of the time. Snow pants are great.

i want

Don't we all.

yami · 14:06 · 7 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Fan Mail

Drop of Someone

A quickie, before I have to leave for class:

The chatterbox makes me want to, well, chatter ... I guess. Fuck it. I don't know, what I'm talking about.

I want to chatter too, though sometimes it seems like my chatterings are all the same and I'd rather just go see a movie. What movie, I don't know; it probably doesn't matter. I could chatter about how the current slate of movies is crap until The Two Towers opens, or else talk about bags of vegetables "reduced for quick sale" on Sundays at Ralphs, but I have to go to class.

How long is it until I can just give up on everything except baking, gardening and blogging about baking and gardening?

yami · 10:55 · 7 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Fan Mail

None of the Above

I was taking my last midterm this afternoon when a car drove by, with a speaker mounted on top, telling me to Vote Democrat in the same voice you'd use to tell people to Please Disperse Immediately after you'd found a great sale on pepper spray. It was quite a disappointment to peek out the window and see a brown sedan - a plain white van with painted windows would have made great theater. Or perhaps an armored SUV of some kind. The awkward postered blob car was just silly. So then I was glad I hadn't voted for many Democrats.

The thing about going third party is that I always have these twinges of regret once the polls are closed, even though I still think Gray Davis is a doody-head and we'd be better off with a slightly flaky fuzzy man from the fuzzy flaky party. Sixty percent of Angelenos think Davis is a doody-head, apparently, even the ones who voted for him, so for once I'm not alone. Maybe we all just like to use the word "doody-head" in political discourse.

It's the sort of thing I should crab at - faced with a slate of doody-heads, most people just stayed home. It's probably a sign that something is broken, and we need a charismatic politician to fix it for us. A "none of the above" option would be nice. But I'm too exhausted to care, because school has eaten up all my stress and angst and bitterness for the month. Yay physics!

yami · 23:55 · 5 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Political Theory and Practice, Diary