So my Laptop battery is not holding a charge, or at the very least having issues doing so.  I'm sending it in again, as it is still covered (the day before the warranty expires instead of the day after, never heard of that before.)  I'll be on the internet less regularly I hope.  Maybe I'll be using my mom's computer for research and spending less ( Read more... )

cause I chose Arby's over Chick-fil-A at the airport.  Yes, those were my choices.  Needless to say, it was not a good dinner.  Glad to be going back to lots of steamed vegetables and my exercise bike tomorrow.

Slept a little over 6 hours which is good for me.  I had to wake up early because I wanted to check out and a friend was giving a talk in the second part of the recreational math session.  They had free bagels and coffee in the exhibit hall, so I grabbed my breakfast and went up to the session.  The editor of the Journal of Recreational Mathematics ( Read more... )

The Ambien I took must have worked or I sufficiently achieved collapse through exhaustion, as I woke up pretty refreshed with almost 8 hours of sleep.  Popped a caffiene pill, had a really good "room coffee", put on my new suit (went with the black suit, black tie, purple shirt), and headed down for some talks.

I decided that I would attend the ( Read more... )

Couldn't sleep.  Got somewhere between 4 and 5 hours, probably closer to 4.  Still woke up on time and had some really good room coffee (a rarity.)  Then I headed to the conference to register and go see a talk on Tropical Mathematics.  I had a student do a capstone on it a while back, but it was still nice to see the basics again ( Read more... )

Almost lost my wallet on the plane.  Someone picked it up and started asking around.  Have to be careful in those shorts.  If I had lost it, would I have been able to come back?  I couldn't get a new New Jersey license in Wisconsin, and they require a driver's license or passport to go through security.  Seriously, I wish to know this.  I have a ( Read more... )

I was very careful with Ambien because I knew it was easy to build up a resistance to it.  I never took it twice in a row, even at conferences and events where I needed sleep for multiple days.  In fact I usually never took it more than once per month.  Well it stopped working anyhow.  Completely.  I took it last night because I haven't been ( Read more... )

Calling All Dawns is available as part of a name your own price bundle.  It's the music from Civilization 4.  (That and Leonard Nemoy were the two things I liked about Civ 4.)  Pay $1 if you want, get the new TMBG album and a bunch of Joco songs that are all available elsewhere.  It's a good deal.

Also, the Oatmeal's take on religion. in case you ( Read more... )

Puzzle author David Millar has started a kickstarter page for his latest project: a physical book of puzzles. He makes many mathy puzzles that I really enjoy (and often do at work while proctoring my exams.) The pledge options are very reasonable. A $5 donation gives you a PDF copy of the book and an $8 donation gives you an actual, physical copy ( Read more... )

I really love working on Hilga.  I couldn't put it away to go to sleep last night and ended up being up past 3 just programming.  It's not hard to do a 12 hour stretch at the computer.  I guess I understand why I stopped though.  I've been obsessively time testing one piece of the program trying to squeeze out a tenth of a second here and there.   ( Read more... )