I received this email from a former student today:

How are you doing??? Remember me?? I was your student in your senior physics advanced class at ______ in 08-09 year. The class with me, _______, _______, _______, and _______. I was taking Physics this summer and was missing your teaching style so much. Today I was looking at my old physics notes ( Read more... )

While I've always agreed with folks like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and Bill Maher, I used to think they were a little too dogmatically atheist. I felt they pushed atheism on folks as aggressively as the evangelical Christians or whatever kind of loud, boisterous Christians in general used to push Jesus on me, telling me my soul ( Read more... )

Ah, Memorial Day weekend. It was rowdy last year, and it was rowdy this year. All I have to say is that, if you ever get the chance to dance around a bonfire all night and then, in the wee hours of the morning, swim in a moonlit ocean, you should do it. Because it's fantastic ( Read more... )

So I'll be getting paid $4500 to do physics for 7 weeks this summer. It's a teaching fellowship at a local university, and I'll be going to a local university and helping kids do projects on cosmic rays. I also get to take tours of the labs and attend seminars to keep my physics knowledge "current." It's really not an accomplishment to get this, I ( Read more... )

A few weeks ago, I was at a wedding in the middle of nowhere. Great wedding, some of my most favorite people in the world, and it was really like a vacation, spending the weekend out in the country with no distractions, only good friends and beverages ( Read more... )

I've been so down lately. I didn't get into grad school. I don't have a job where I want one. I am not living where I want to. I'm a complete sell-out and I let my job push me around. Shitty things have happened, some of the events were in my control, but some weren't. But I forget that I'm capable of doing awesome things every once in a while. ( Read more... )

Why can we only pick one subject to study in college (or two if you minor in something)? Why are we expected pick one line of work and stick with it? Why is it difficult nowadays to uproot and change careers if you want to? Why is our society constructed so that we have to pick one role, maybe two if you're lucky, and stick with it ( Read more... )

So today my favorite undergrad professor who wrote me recommendations emailed me to inquire to what news I had about getting into grad school. I told him, and he said to think sideways and consider a different field of physics. And then he said, you know, like space science. Well space science is his field, and it is pretty cool. I really wouldn't ( Read more... )

Officially 20 days left of school. I guess 21 if you count the fact that we're required to attend graduation. Last year I didn't mind, I wanted to, because I taught mostly seniors and it was cool to see them walk the stage. This year I teach freshmen, so I'm not going to know any of the seniors, except the ones who come to me for physics help ( Read more... )

This is just a musing, completely unrelated to any life experience or anything I've bitched about recently ( Read more... )